title: Learning flexible sensori-motor mappings in a complex network.
abstract: Given the complex structure of the brain, how can synaptic plasticity explain the learning and forgetting of associations when these are continuously changing? We address this question by studying different reinforcement learning rules in a multilayer network in order to reproduce monkey behavior in a visuomotor association task. Our model can only reproduce the learning performance of the monkey if the synaptic modifications depend on the pre- and postsynaptic activity, and if the intrinsic level of stochasticity is low. This favored learning rule is based on reward modulated Hebbian synaptic plasticity and shows the interesting feature that the learning performance does not substantially degrade when adding layers to the network, even for a complex problem.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physiology, University of Bern, Buehlplatz 5, 3012 Bern, Switzerland. eleni.vasilaki@epfl.ch
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vasilaki
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fusi
authors.forename: Xiao-Jing
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Senn
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D000882:Haplorhini; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008433:Mathematics; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012201:Reward; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology