The construction of semantic memory: grammar based representations learned from relational episodic information
After acquisition, memories underlie a process of consolidation, making them more resistant to interference and brain injury. Memory consolidation involves systems-level interactions, most importantly between the hippocampus and associated structures, which takes part in the initial encoding of me...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2011-08-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fncom.2011.00036/full |
| _version_ | 1811309974037463040 |
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| author | Francesco P Battaglia Cyriel Pennartz |
| author_facet | Francesco P Battaglia Cyriel Pennartz |
| author_sort | Francesco P Battaglia |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | After acquisition, memories underlie a process of consolidation, making them more resistant to interference and brain injury. Memory consolidation involves systems-level interactions, most importantly between the hippocampus and associated structures, which takes part in the initial encoding of memory, and the neocortex, which supports long-term storage. This dichotomy parallels the contrast between episodic memory (tied to the hippocampal formation), collecting an autobiographical stream of experiences, and semantic memory, a repertoire of facts and statistical regularities about the world, involving the neocortex at large. Experimental evidence points to a gradual transformation of memories, following encoding, from an episodic to a semantic character. This may require an exchange of information between different memory modules during inactive periods. We propose a theory for such interactions and for the formation of semantic memory, in which episodic memory is encoded as relational data. Semantic memory is modeled as a modified stochastic grammar, which learns to parse episodic configurations expressed as an association matrix. The grammar produces tree-like representations of episodes, describing the relationships between its main constituents at multiple levels of categorization, based on its current knowledge of world regularities. These regularities are learned by the grammar from episodic memory information, through an expectation-maximization procedure, analogous to the inside-outside algorithm for stochastic context-free grammars. We propose that a Monte-Carlo sampling version of this algorithm can be mapped on the dynamics of ``sleep replay'' of previously acquired information in the hippocampus and neocortex. We propose that the model can reproduce several properties of semantic memory such as decontextualization, top-down processing, and creation of schemata. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T09:50:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2a166e7ca7464ff0b8a381ad6b5bbf2d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5188 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T09:50:47Z |
| publishDate | 2011-08-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-2a166e7ca7464ff0b8a381ad6b5bbf2d2022-12-22T02:51:36ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience1662-51882011-08-01510.3389/fncom.2011.000361483The construction of semantic memory: grammar based representations learned from relational episodic informationFrancesco P Battaglia0Cyriel Pennartz1Universiteit van AmsterdamUniversiteit van AmsterdamAfter acquisition, memories underlie a process of consolidation, making them more resistant to interference and brain injury. Memory consolidation involves systems-level interactions, most importantly between the hippocampus and associated structures, which takes part in the initial encoding of memory, and the neocortex, which supports long-term storage. This dichotomy parallels the contrast between episodic memory (tied to the hippocampal formation), collecting an autobiographical stream of experiences, and semantic memory, a repertoire of facts and statistical regularities about the world, involving the neocortex at large. Experimental evidence points to a gradual transformation of memories, following encoding, from an episodic to a semantic character. This may require an exchange of information between different memory modules during inactive periods. We propose a theory for such interactions and for the formation of semantic memory, in which episodic memory is encoded as relational data. Semantic memory is modeled as a modified stochastic grammar, which learns to parse episodic configurations expressed as an association matrix. The grammar produces tree-like representations of episodes, describing the relationships between its main constituents at multiple levels of categorization, based on its current knowledge of world regularities. These regularities are learned by the grammar from episodic memory information, through an expectation-maximization procedure, analogous to the inside-outside algorithm for stochastic context-free grammars. We propose that a Monte-Carlo sampling version of this algorithm can be mapped on the dynamics of ``sleep replay'' of previously acquired information in the hippocampus and neocortex. We propose that the model can reproduce several properties of semantic memory such as decontextualization, top-down processing, and creation of schemata.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fncom.2011.00036/fullmemory consolidationepisodic memorysleep replayStochastic grammars |
| spellingShingle | Francesco P Battaglia Cyriel Pennartz The construction of semantic memory: grammar based representations learned from relational episodic information Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience memory consolidation episodic memory sleep replay Stochastic grammars |
| title | The construction of semantic memory: grammar based representations learned from relational episodic information |
| title_full | The construction of semantic memory: grammar based representations learned from relational episodic information |
| title_fullStr | The construction of semantic memory: grammar based representations learned from relational episodic information |
| title_full_unstemmed | The construction of semantic memory: grammar based representations learned from relational episodic information |
| title_short | The construction of semantic memory: grammar based representations learned from relational episodic information |
| title_sort | construction of semantic memory grammar based representations learned from relational episodic information |
| topic | memory consolidation episodic memory sleep replay Stochastic grammars |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fncom.2011.00036/full |
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