A Neural Network Model of the Entorhinal Cortex and Hippocampus for Event-Order Memory Processing

Abstract

To solve a navigation task based on experiences, we need a mechanism to associate places with objects and recall them along the course of action. In a reward-oriented task, if the route to a reward location is simulated in mind after experiencing it once, it might be possible that the reward is gained efficiently. One way to solve this is to incorporate a biologically plausible mechanism. In this study, we propose a neural network that stores a sequence of events associated with a reward. The proposed network recalls the reward location by tracing them in its mind in order. We simulated a virtual mouse that explores a figure-eight maze and recalls the route to the reward location. During the learning period, a sequence of events related to firing along a passage was temporarily stored in the heteroassociative network, and the sequence of events is consolidated in the synaptic weight matrix when a reward is fed. For retrieval, an impetus input internally generates the sequential activation of conjunctive cue–place cells toward the reward location. In the figure-eight maze task, the location of the reward was estimated by mind travel, irrespective of whether the reward is in the counterclockwise or distant clockwise route. The mechanism of efficiently reaching the goal by mind travel in the brain based on experiences is beneficial for mobile service robots that perform autonomous navigation.

Keywords

• Entorhinal cortex
• hippocampus
• long-term memory
• goal-oriented maze learning
• directed graph