modification of brain circuits as a result of experience (purves, chapter 23) aka ‘the plastic...
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Modification of brain circuits as a result of experience(Purves, chapter 23)
aka ‘the plastic people of the universe’
Half a Brain is Enough: The Story of Nico (2001). Antonio M. Battro (Series: Cambridge Studies in Cognitive and Perceptual Development, No. 5). CUP
“Man with tiny brain shocks doctors”New Scientist, 20 July 2007 Ref: Feuillet et al. (2007) The Lancet, vol 370, p 262
Yu, F., Jiang, Q. J., Sun, X. Y., & Zhang, R. W. (2014). A new case of complete primary cerebellar agenesis: clinical and imaging findings in a living patient. Brain, awu239.
Plasticity in development is a story about how development is organised. It is a not a story about variability, but about how consistent developmental outcomes are achieved and where the constraints are built into the system (see Clark & Thompson, 1997)
Contiguity of learning and development
Moficationism vs Constructionism- is there a ‘genetic blueprint’? (see Elman et al, 1996)
Orientation...
Orientation contours(Ocular dominance boundaries)
around pointsingularity 1
in linear region2
along fracture4
at saddlepoint
3
• Continuity: the feature value is encoded as far as possible in a smooth way but with some....
• Discontinuities: perfect continuity is not possible leading to map fractures and isolated point discontinuities.
• Diversity: All feature values are represented
• Global disorder: maps are not perfectly regular
• Map Coordination: Maps for different stimulus features cooperate to equalise resources locally within each part of the visual field.
(Carreira-Perpinan & Goodhill, 2002).
Modelling self-organising feature maps
repeated exposure to inputs + hebb rule + shrinking neighbourhoods -> SOFMs
= The ‘Kohonen algorithm’ (Kohonen, 1984; see Gurney, 1997)
A set of principles which can explain map developmen in different domains, and normal and abnormal outcomes. E.g….
Present input pattern
Change weights according to hebb rule for winning unit ….and all within its neighbourhood
(renormalise weights)
(reduce neighbourhood size)
Essential Components of the Kohonen Algorithm
• Repeated exposure –> training by experience/the environment
• Hebb Rule -> selectivity (+ renormalisation)
• Neighbourhoods -> topography
Normally the two halves of the frog’s visual area (the two tecta) are innervated separately, each by one eye
What happens when you implant a third eye in a frog, so that two eyes are forced to innervate the same tectum? Law & Constantine-Paton (1981)
So, is there a blueprint for the developmental outcome?
A moral from the modelling is that you can get organised outcomes without full prespecification (see also Linsker, 1986)
Essential Components of the Kohonen Algorithm
• Repeated exposure –> training by experience/the environment
• Hebb Rule -> selectivity (+ renormalisation)
• Neighbourhoods -> topography
A single computational principle which can explain diverse outcomes (by varying inputs)
• Deprivation is only disruptive during the critical period. Not after, and not before
• What is happening before? Probably development driven by spontaneous activity
• Stryker (1986) injected the activity-blocking agent tetrodoxin (TTX) into small areas of visual cortex which subsequently failed to develop ocular dominance columns.
• See also Chapman and Stryker (1993), Sengpiel et al (1999)
Evidence for selectivity *before* birth…
• Orientation selectivity – Crair et al (1998)
• see Crowley & Katz (2002) for a similar story regarding ODCs
• Contralateral connections ‘coach’ ipselateral connections
• Compare to the recent experience of Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) :
• http://web.archive.org/web/20061107120053/http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/10/good_news_day.html
Bonus Material #2: The instability of the hebb rule, plasticity of critical periods & plasticity due to adult experience
An aside on the instability of the Hebb Rule
• The Hebb Rule is a positive feedback rule – winners win even more
• This is unstable, leading to explosion of activity, and, additionally, shouldn’t allow phenomena such as those Crair et al present
• There is a problem with how hebb learning is regulated
– See also Abbott & Nelson (2000) and Turrigiano (1999)
What determines the length of the critical period?
• Normally, dark rearing can be used to delay critical period closure in the visual system…
• Bartoletti et al (2004). Nature Neuroscience, 7(3), 215-26
Merabet, L. B., Hamilton, R., Schlaug, G., Swisher, J. D., Kiriakopoulos, E. T., Pitskel, N. B., et al. (2008). Rapid and Reversible Recruitment of Early Visual Cortex for Touch. PLoS ONE, 3(8).
Also TMS to occipital cortex increases errors on tactic task for blindfolded group only