
Complementary Learning Systems theory holds that intelligent agents need two learning systems. Semantic memory is encoded in the neocortex with dense, overlapping representations and acquires structured knowledge. Episodic memory is encoded in the hippocampus with sparse, pattern-separated representations and quickly learns the specifics of individual experiences. Recently, this duality between semantic and episodic memories has been challenged by predictive coding, a biologically plausible neural network model of the neocortex which was shown to have hippocampus-like abilities on auto-associative memory tasks. These results raise the question of the episodic capabilities of the neocortex and their relation to semantic memory. In this paper, we present such a predictive coding model of the neocortex and explore its episodic capabilities. We show that this kind of model can indeed recall the specifics of individual examples but only if it is trained on a small number of examples. The model is overfitted to these exemples and does not generalize well, suggesting that episodic memory can arise from semantic learning. Indeed, a model trained with many more examples loses its recall capabilities. This work suggests that individual examples can be encoded gradually in the neocortex using dense, overlapping representations but only in a limited number, motivating the need for sparse, pattern-separated representations as found in the hippocampus.
FOS: Computer and information sciences, hippocampus, semantic memory, [INFO.INFO-NE] Computer Science [cs]/Neural and Evolutionary Computing [cs.NE], episodic memory, [INFO.INFO-LG] Computer Science [cs]/Machine Learning [cs.LG], Machine Learning (cs.LG), Machine Learning, autoassociative memory, neocortex, Neural and Evolutionary Computing, generative model, Neural and Evolutionary Computing (cs.NE), predictive coding
FOS: Computer and information sciences, hippocampus, semantic memory, [INFO.INFO-NE] Computer Science [cs]/Neural and Evolutionary Computing [cs.NE], episodic memory, [INFO.INFO-LG] Computer Science [cs]/Machine Learning [cs.LG], Machine Learning (cs.LG), Machine Learning, autoassociative memory, neocortex, Neural and Evolutionary Computing, generative model, Neural and Evolutionary Computing (cs.NE), predictive coding
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 0 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Average | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
