Neurons Can Learn Temporal Patterns

Neuroscience NewsMay 29, 2017

FeaturedNeuroscienceOpen Neuroscience Articles4 min read

Summary: Researchers find the brain’s capacity to learn is created than previously thought.
Source: Lund University.
Individual neurons can learn not only single responses to a particular signal, but also a series of reactions at precisely timed intervals. This is what emerges from a study at Lund University in Sweden.

“It is like striking a piano key with a finger not just once, but as a programmed series of several keystrokes”, says neurophysiology researcher Germund Hesslow.
The work constitutes basic research, but has a bearing on the development of neural networks and artificial intelligence as well as research on learning. Autism, ADHD and language disorders in children, for example, may be associated with disruptions in these and other basic learning mechanisms.

Learning is commonly thought to be based on strengthening or weakening of the contacts between the brain’s neurons. The Lund researchers have previously shown that a cell can also learn a timed association, so that it sends a signal with a certain learned delay. Now, it seems that a neuron can be trained not only to give a single response, but a whole complex series of several responses.


The brain’s learning capacity is greater than previously thought

“This means that the brain’s capacity for learning is even greater than previously thought!” says Germund Hesslow’s colleague Dan-Anders Jirenhed. He thinks that, in the future, artificial neural networks with “trained neurons” could be capable of managing more complex tasks in a more efficient way.

The Lund researchers’ study focuses on the neurons’ capacity for associative learning and temporal learning. In the experiments, the cells learned during several hours of training to associate two different signals. If the delay between the signals was a quarter of a second, the cells learned to respond after a quarter of a second. If the interval was half a second, the cells responded after half a second, and so on.

The researchers now show that the cells can learn not only one, but several reactions in a series. “Signal – brief pause – signal – long pause – signal” gives rise to a series of responses with exactly the same intervals of time: “response – brief pause – response – long pause – response”.

The researchers now show that the cells can learn not only one, but several reactions in a series. NeuroscienceNews.com image is for illustrative purposes only.

The cells studied by the researchers are called Purkinje cells and are located in the cerebellum. The cerebellum is the part of the brain that controls bodily position, balance and movement. It also plays an important role in learning long series of complicated movements which require precise timing, such as the movements of the hands and fingers when playing the piano.

About this neuroscience research article

Source: Lund University
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Full open access research for “Learned response sequences in cerebellar Purkinje cells” by Dan-Anders Jirenhed, Anders Rasmussen, Fredrik Johansson, and Germund Hesslow in PNAS. Published online May 22 2017 doi:10.1073/pnas.1621132114

Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article

 

Lund University “Neurons Can Learn Temporal Patterns.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 29 May 2017.
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Abstract
Learned response sequences in cerebellar Purkinje cells
Associative learning in the cerebellum has previously focused on single movements. In eyeblink conditioning, for instance, a subject learns to blink at the right time in response to a conditional stimulus (CS), such as a tone that is repeatedly followed by an unconditional corneal stimulus (US).

During conditioning, the CS and US are transmitted by mossy/parallel fibers and climbing fibers to cerebellar Purkinje cells that acquire a precisely timed pause response that drives the overt blink response. The timing of this conditional Purkinje cell response is determined by the CS–US interval and is independent of temporal patterns in the input signal.

In addition to single movements, the cerebellum is also believed to be important for learning complex motor programs that require multiple precisely timed muscle contractions, such as, for example, playing the piano. In the present work, we studied Purkinje cells in decerebrate ferrets that were conditioned using electrical stimulation of mossy fiber and climbing fiber afferents as CS and US, while alternating between short and long interstimulus intervals.

We found that Purkinje cells can learn double pause responses, separated by an intermediate excitation, where each pause corresponds to one interstimulus interval. The results show that individual cells can not only learn to time a single response but that they also learn an accurately timed sequential response pattern.

“Learned response sequences in cerebellar Purkinje cells” by Dan-Anders Jirenhed, Anders Rasmussen, Fredrik Johansson, and Germund Hesslow in PNAS. Published online May 22 2017 doi:10.1073/pnas.1621132114