On Thu, Apr 24, 2025 at 6:23 AM 'Cosmin Visan' via Everything List < [email protected]> wrote:
*> Of course Cosmin Visan's brain doesn't exist * *I never thought I'd say this but, I agree with Cosmin Visan. * *John K Clark See what's on my new list at Extropolis <https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis>* vca >> On Tuesday, 22 April 2025 at 22:26:17 UTC+3 John Clark wrote: >>> >>>> *It has long been known that learning and long-term memories are >>>> produced by the strengthening and weakening of synaptic connections between >>>> neurons, called "neuron plasticity", but it has not been clear what >>>> determines which synapses are modified during learning in memory formation >>>> and by how much. Two articles in the April 18, 2025 issue of the Journal >>>> Science cast some light on that mystery: * >>>> >>>> *Dendritic arbors structure memories* >>>> <https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adx0640> >>>> >>>> *Distinct synaptic plasticity rules operate across dendritic >>>> compartments in vivo during learning* >>>> <https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads4706> >>>> >>>> *It turns out which of the many dendrites that a neuron that receives >>>> an input signal is important in choosing what rules that neuron will >>>> follow, which in turn determines whether the entire neuron will fire or >>>> not. Some neurons pay more attention to signals from nearby neurons while >>>> others find distant neurons to be more interesting. And synapses in >>>> different parts of the brain have different rules. This increases the >>>> information storage capacity of a single neuron.* >>>> >>>> *William J Wright, the lead author of the paper says: * >>>> >>>> *“When people talk about synaptic plasticity, it’s typically regarded >>>> as uniform within the brain, our research provides a clearer understanding >>>> of how synapses are being modified during learning, with potentially >>>> important health implications since many diseases in the brain involve some >>>> form of synaptic dysfunction.”* >>>> >>>> * Takaki Komiyama another author of the paper says: * >>>> >>>> *“This discovery fundamentally changes the way we understand how the >>>> brain solves the credit assignment problem, with the concept that >>>> individual neurons perform distinct computations in parallel in different >>>> subcellular compartments.”* >>>> >>>> *I wouldn't be surprised if AI scientists take note of this and make a >>>> neural net in a similar way to see if that improves performance, but just >>>> because nature produces intelligence in a certain way is no guarantee that >>>> is the best way to do it. * >>>> >>>> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAJPayv0QwXryPLC50qVb0JL3SfWLSasq0_YbsVhy_ae1EWEP5g%40mail.gmail.com.
