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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 101/6/2775    most recent 91007.2008v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Billings, G. Articles by van Rossum, M. C. W. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Billings, G. Articles by van Rossum, M. C. W.

Memory Retention and Spike-Timing-Dependent Plasticity

¹Neuroinformatics Doctoral Training Centre and ²Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Submitted 6 September 2008; accepted in final form 11 March 2009

Memory systems should be plastic to allow for learning; however, they should also retain earlier memories. Here we explore how synaptic weights and memories are retained in models of single neurons and networks equipped with spike-timing-dependent plasticity. We show that for single neuron models, the precise learning rule has a strong effect on the memory retention time. In particular, a soft-bound, weight-dependent learning rule has a very short retention time as compared with a learning rule that is independent of the synaptic weights. Next, we explore how the retention time is reflected in receptive field stability in networks. As in the single neuron case, the weight-dependent learning rule yields less stable receptive fields than a weight-independent rule. However, receptive fields stabilize in the presence of sufficient lateral inhibition, demonstrating that plasticity in networks can be regulated by inhibition and suggesting a novel role for inhibition in neural circuits.