Learning temporal patterns by redistribution of synaptic efficacy

Abstract

Recent experiments have shown that neocortical synapses exhibit both short-term plasticity and spike-timing dependent long-term plasticity. It has been suggested that changes in short-term plasticity are mediated by a redistribution of synaptic efficacy. Here we propose a simple model of the interaction between spike-timing dependent plasticity and short-term plasticity. We show that the model captures the synaptic behavior seen in experiments on redistribution of synaptic efficacy. Results from our simulations suggest that spike-timing dependent redistribution of synaptic efficacy offers neocortical neurons a potentially powerful mechanism for learning spatiotemporal patterns in the input stream.