Cortical Circuits from Scratch: A Metaplastic Architecture for the Emergence of Lognormal Firing Rates and Realistic Topology

Our current understanding of neuroplasticity paints a picture of a complex interconnected system of dependent processes which shape cortical structure so as to produce an efficient information processing system. Indeed, the cooperation of these processes is associated with robust, stable, adaptable networks with characteristic features of activity and synaptic topology. However, combining the actions of these mechanisms in models has proven exceptionally difficult and to date no model has been able to do so without significant hand-tuning. Until such a model exists that can successfully combine these mechanisms to form a stable circuit with realistic features, our ability to study neuroplasticity in the context of (more realistic) dynamic networks and potentially reap whatever rewards these features and mechanisms imbue biological networks with is hindered. We introduce a model which combines five known plasticity mechanisms that act on the network as well as a unique metaplastic mechanism which acts on other plasticity mechanisms, to produce a neural circuit model which is both stable and capable of broadly reproducing many characteristic features of cortical networks. The MANA (metaplastic artificial neural architecture) represents the first model of its kind in that it is able to self-organize realistic, nonrandom features of cortical networks, from a null initial state (no synaptic connectivity or neuronal differentiation) with no hand-tuning of relevant variables. In the same vein as models like the SORN (self-organizing recurrent network) MANA represents further progress toward the reverse engineering of the brain at the network level.