Replay and compositional computation
Neurons and Cognition
2022-12-21 v2
Abstract
Replay in the brain has been viewed as rehearsal, or, more recently, as sampling from a transition model. Here, we propose a new hypothesis: that replay is able to implement a form of compositional computation where entities are assembled into relationally-bound structures to derive qualitatively new knowledge. This idea builds on recent advances in neuroscience which indicate that the hippocampus flexibly binds objects to generalizable roles and that replay strings these role-bound objects into compound statements. We suggest experiments to test our hypothesis, and we end by noting the implications for AI systems which lack the human ability to radically generalize past experience to solve new problems.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2209.07453,
title = {Replay and compositional computation},
author = {Zeb Kurth-Nelson and Timothy Behrens and Greg Wayne and Kevin Miller and Lennart Luettgau and Ray Dolan and Yunzhe Liu and Philipp Schwartenbeck},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2209.07453},
year = {2022}
}