Title: Storing and retrieving long-term memories: cooperation and competition in synaptic dynamics,
Abstract: We first review traditional approaches to memory storage and formation,
drawing on the literature of quantitative neuroscience as well as statistical
physics. These have generally focused on the fast dynamics of neurons; however,
there is now an increasing emphasis on the slow dynamics of synapses, whose
weight changes are held to be responsible for memory storage. An important
first step in this direction was taken in the context of Fusi's cascade model,
where complex synaptic architectures were invoked, in particular, to store
long-term memories. No explicit synaptic dynamics were, however, invoked in
that work. These were recently incorporated theoretically using the techniques
used in agent-based modelling, and subsequently, models of competing and
cooperating synapses were formulated. It was found that the key to the storage
of long-term memories lay in the competitive dynamics of synapses. In this
review, we focus on models of synaptic competition and cooperation, and look at
the outstanding challenges that remain.