Even as machine learning exceeds human-level performance on many applications, the generality, robustness, and rapidity of the brain's learning capabilities remain unmatched. How cognition arises from neural activity is the central open question in neuroscience, inextricable from the study of intelligence itself. A simple formal model of neural activity was proposed in Papadimitriou et al. (2020) and has been subsequently shown, through both mathematical proofs and simulations, to be capable of implementing certain simple cognitive operations via the creation and manipulation of assemblies of neurons. However, many intelligent behaviors rely on the ability to recognize, store, and manipulate temporal sequences of stimuli (planning, language, navigation, to list a few). Here we show that in the same model, sequential precedence can be captured naturally through synaptic weights and plasticity, and, as a result, a range of computations on sequences of assemblies can be carried out. In particular, repeated presentation of a sequence of stimuli leads to the memorization of the sequence through corresponding neural assemblies: upon future presentation of any stimulus in the sequence, the corresponding assembly and its subsequent ones will be activated, one after the other, until the end of the sequence. If the stimulus sequence is presented to two brain areas simultaneously, a scaffolded representation is created, resulting in more efficient memorization and recall, in agreement with cognitive experiments. Finally, we show that any finite state machine can be learned in a similar way, through the presentation of appropriate patterns of sequences. Through an extension of this mechanism, the model can be shown to be capable of universal computation. Taken together, these results provide a concrete hypothesis for the basis of the brain's remarkable abilities to compute and learn, with sequences playing a vital role.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/neco_a_01720 | DOI Listing |
Sci Data
January 2025
Department of Crop Science, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 34134, Republic of Korea.
Goosegrass, belonging to the genus Eleusine within the Chloridoideae subfamily, is often one of the problematic weeds with strong invasiveness, competing with crops for essential survival resources. Although a chromosome-level genome assembly of E. indica from China was published last year, the present research focuses on a population of E.
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January 2025
Key Laboratory of Breeding Biotechnology and Sustainable Aquaculture (CAS), Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, Key Laboratory of Aquaculture Disease Control, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, The Innovation Academy of Seed Design, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430072, China.
The large-scale loach (Paramisgurnus dabryanus; Cypriniformes: Cobitidae) is primarily distributed in East Asia. It is an important economic fish species characterized by fast growth, temperature-dependent sex determination and the ability to breathe air. Currently, molecular mechanism studies related to some aspects such as sex determination, toxicology, feed nutrition, growth and genetic evolution have been conducted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrob Pathog
January 2025
Department of Animal Science and Technology, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea. Electronic address:
Burkholderia contaminans SK875, a member of Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc), are known to cause lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients. To gain deeper insights into its quorum sensing (QS)-mediated pathogenicity, we employed a transposon (Tn) insertion-based random mutagenesis approach. A Tn mutant library comprising of 15,000 transconjugants was generated through conjugation between wild-type (WT) recipient B.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVirus Res
January 2025
Molecular Biology and Functional Genomics Platform, National Centre for Scientific and Technical Research (CNRST), Rabat, Morocco; Genomic Centre for Human Pathologies (GENOPATH), Neuroscience and Neurogenetics Research Team, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, University Mohammed V, Rabat, Morocco. Electronic address:
This study investigates the evolution and genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 strains circulating in Morocco to track the spread, clade distributions and mutations of the virus across various regions from February 2020 to June 2024. The genome sequences were retrieved from the GISAID database. A total of 2630 SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences were analyzed using bioinformatic tools such as Nextclade, followed by phylogenetic and statistical analyses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Am Chem Soc
January 2025
Center for Sustainable Materials (SusMat), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore.
Complex coacervation is a form of liquid-liquid phase separation, whereby two types of macromolecules, usually bearing opposite net charges, self-assemble into dense microdroplets driven by weak molecular interactions. Peptide-based coacervates have recently emerged as promising carriers to deliver large macromolecules (nucleic acids, proteins and complex thereof) inside cells. Thus, it is essential to understand their assembly/disassembly mechanisms at the molecular level in order to tune the thermodynamics of coacervates formation and the kinetics of cargo release upon entering the cell.
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