Modeling active memory: Experiment, theory and simulation

Neuro-physiological experiments on cognitively performing primates are described to argue that strong evidence exists for localized, non-ergodic (stimulus specific) attractor dynamics in the cortex. The specific phenomena are delay activity distributions-enhanced spike-rate distributions resulting from training, which we associate with working memory. The anatomy of the relevant cortex region and the physiological characteristics of the participating elements (neural cells) are reviewed to provide a substrate for modeling the observed phenomena. Modeling is based on the properties of the integrate-and-fire neural element in presence of an input current of Gaussian distribution. Theory of stochastic processes provides an expression for the spike emission rate as a function of the mean and the variance of the current distribution. Mean-field theory is then based on the assumption that spike emission processes in different neurons in the network are independent, and hence the input current to a neuron is Gau...

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