Abstract concept learning in a simple neural network inspired by the insect brain.

Alex J Cope,James A R Marshall,Eleni Vasilaki,Andrew B Barron,Dorian Minors,Chelsea Sabo,Joseph Ayers

doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006435

Alex J Cope, James A R Marshall + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006435

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Abstract

The capacity to learn abstract concepts such as ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’ is considered a higher-order cognitive function, typically thought to be dependent on top-down neocortical processing. It is therefore surprising that honey bees apparantly have this capacity. Here we report a model of the structures of the honey bee brain that can learn sameness and difference, as well as a range of complex and simple associative learning tasks. Our model is constrained by the known connections and properties of the mushroom body, including the protocerebral tract, and provides a good fit to the learning rates and performances of real bees in all tasks, including learning sameness and difference. The model proposes a novel mechanism for learning the abstract concepts of ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’ that is compatible with the insect brain, and is not dependent on top-down or executive control processing.

Highlights

Abstract concepts involve the relationships between things
We explored whether a neural circuit model, inspired and constrained by the known connections of the honey bee mushroom bodies, is capable of learning sameness and difference in a DMTS and DNMTS task (Fig 1)
We present two models inspired by the anatomy and properties of the honey bee brain that are computationally capable of learning in DMTS and DNMTS tasks, and the generalisation of this learning to novel stimuli (Fig 1)

Summary

Introduction

Abstract concepts involve the relationships between things. Two simple and classic examples of abstract concepts are ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’. These categorise the relative similarity of things: they are properties of a relationship between objects, but they are independent of, and unrelated to, the features of the objects themselves. The capacity to identify and act on abstract relationships is a higher-order cognitive capacity, and one that is considered critical for any operation involving equivalence or general quantitative comparison [1,2,3,4]. The capacity to recognise abstract concepts such as sameness has even been considered to form the “very keel and backbone of our thinking” [5]. Several non-verbal animals have been shown to be able to recognise ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’ including, notably, the honey bee [6,7,8,9]

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