Cell Assemblies
- These neurons do a lot of things, but one of the things they
do is represent concepts.
- So, we all have a concept for dog and that concept
is represented by a Cell Assembly (CA from Hebb in 1949).
- A CA is a set of neurons that tend to have high connection strength.
- When a concept is sensed (via e.g. seeing, smelling, touching or reading
about) the neurons that represent the concept begin to fire.
- The neurons in the CA have large connections, so they may
cause other neurons in the CA to fire, and the CA may persist.
- The persistent firing of a CA is a short-term memory.
- The formation of a CA is a long-term memory.