On palimpsests in neural memory: an information theory viewpoint

Date
2016-12
Authors
Varshney, Lav R.
Kusuma, Julius
Goyal, Vivek K.
Version
Accepted manuscript
OA Version
Citation
Lav R Varshney, Julius Kusuma, Vivek K Goyal. 2016. "On Palimpsests in Neural Memory: An Information Theory Viewpoint." IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological and Multi-Scale Communications, Volume 2, Issue 2, pp. 143 - 153. https://doi.org/10.1109/tmbmc.2016.2640320
Abstract
The finite capacity of neural memory and the reconsolidation phenomenon suggest it is important to be able to update stored information as in a palimpsest, where new information overwrites old information. Moreover, changing information in memory is metabolically costly. In this paper, we suggest that information-theoretic approaches may inform the fundamental limits in constructing such a memory system. In particular, we define malleable coding, that considers not only representation length but also ease of representation update, thereby encouraging some form of recycling to convert an old codeword into a new one. Malleability cost is the difficulty of synchronizing compressed versions, and malleable codes are of particular interest when representing information and modifying the representation are both expensive. We examine the tradeoff between compression efficiency and malleability cost, under a malleability metric defined with respect to a string edit distance. This introduces a metric topology to the compressed domain. We characterize the exact set of achievable rates and malleability as the solution of a subgraph isomorphism problem. This is all done within the optimization approach to biology framework.
Description
License
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