A Familiarity-Based Learning Procedure for the Establishment of
Place Fields in Area CA3 of the Rat Hippocampus
Szabolcs Káli   Peter Dayan
In CNS 2000.
Abstract
That familiarity should gate learning is a neurobiological and
computational commonplace, and has been particularly investigated in
the context of the hippocampus. We show its critical importance in
continuous attractor models, using the formation of place fields in
hippocampal area CA3 as an example. Without it, biased sampling of
places in an environment, coming from purely random exploration,
leads to degenerate attractors and prevents the formation of place
fields. Conversely, appropriate use of familiarity information during
learning can counteract the sampling bias, resulting in a normal place
cell representation.
compressed postscript   pdf