Our ability to perceive external sensory stimuli improves as we experience the same stimulus repeatedly. This perceptual enhancement, called perceptual learning, has been demonstrated for various sensory systems, such as vision, audition, and somatosensation. I investigated the contribution of lateral excitatory and inhibitory synaptic balance to perceptual learning. I constructed a simple associative neural network model in which sensory features were expressed by the activities of specific cell assemblies. Each neuron is sensitive to a specific sensory feature, and the neurons belonging to the same cell assembly are sensitive to the same feature. During perceptual learning processes, the network was presented repeatedly with a stimulus that was composed of a sensory feature and noise, and the lateral excitatory and inhibitory synaptic connection strengths between neurons were modified according to a pulse-timing-based Hebbian rule. Perceptual learning enhanced the cognitive performance of the network, i...
['Osamu Hoshino']
Neuronal Bases of Perceptual Learning Revealed by a Synaptic Balance Scheme