title: Emergence of neural integration in the head-direction system by visual supervision.
abstract: Head-direction (HD) cells in subcortical areas of the mammalian brain are tuned to a particular head direction in space; a population of such neurons forms a neural compass that may be relevant for spatial navigation. The development of neural circuits constituting the head-direction system is poorly understood. Inspired by electrophysiological experiments about the role of recurrent synaptic connections, we investigate a learning rule that teaches neurons to amplify feed-forward inputs. We simulate random head movements of a rat, during which neurons receive both visual and vestibular (head-velocity) inputs. Remarkably, as recurrent connections learn to amplify exclusively the visual inputs, a neural network emerges that performs spatio-temporal integration. That is, during head movements in darkness, neurons resemble HD cells by maintaining a fixed tuning to head direction. The proposed learning rule exhibits similarities with known forms of anti-Hebbian synaptic plasticity. We conclude that selective amplification could serve as a general principle for the synaptic development of multimodal feedback circuits in the brain.
authors.affiliation: Bell Labs 1C-456, Lucent Technologies, 600 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, NJ 07974, USA. rhahnloser@lucent.com
authors.forename: R H R
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Hahnloser
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D019416:Head Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D009474:Neurons; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D011434:Proprioception / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology