Predictive dendrites as a foundation for biological learning

Abstract

A fundamental challenge for neuroscience is to identify laws of synaptic plasticity that are consistent with experimental observations at the level of individual neurons, whilst also explaining the ability of neural networks to learn complex tasks. Here we investigate a candidate law in which neurons adjust synaptic strengths to minimize the mismatch between somatic and dendritic activity. We demonstrate that models based on this rule can effectively adjust synaptic weights across network layers to learn non-linear tasks. Moreover, minimizing mismatch between spiking activity and dendritic inputs leads to integrate-and-fire dynamics and spike-timing-dependent plasticity. The model reproduces the experimentally observed dependencies of plasticity upon initial synaptic weights and spike patterns, whilst also generating a series of testable predictions. Our results show that a single principle – minimization of somato-dendritic mismatch – links learning at the network level with fundamental properties of individual neurons, including membrane potential dynamics and canonical features of synaptic plasticity.