Connectionists: Transient subnetwork selection: a new paradigm to replace connectionism?

[Danko Nikolic]

Dear Steve,

Thank you for your email. I have a hard time seeing the relevance of those
papers for my present work. There are thousands of papers on metabotropic
receptors. However, here I put emphasis on their work in combination with G
protein-gated ion channels. Do you have some papers about this combination:
MRs and GPGICs working together to ensure transient subnetwork selection?

If you do and if they fit into the paradigm, I will of course gladly cite
them in my next paper.

Thanks,

Danko

Dr. Danko Nikolić
www.danko-nikolic.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/danko-nikolic/
-- I wonder, how is the brain able to generate insight? --


On Wed, Feb 1, 2023 at 5:24 PM Grossberg, Stephen <steve at bu.edu> wrote:

> Dear Danko,
>
> Thanks very much for sharing your latest article with the connectionists
> list.
>
> In it, you kindly mention my own work in several places. Thanks very much!
>
> However, the statements that you make about it are not correct.
>
> My Magnum Opus
>
> *Conscious Mind, Resonant Brain: How Each Brain Makes a Mind*
>
> https://www.amazon.com/Conscious-Mind-Resonant-Brain-Makes/dp/0190070552
>
> provides a self-contained and non-technical overview of many aspects of my
> work in which these problems
> do not occur. I can provide examples if you would like, but will here
> focus on just one topic:
>
> Your email mentions the importance of metabotropic receptors and suggest
> that they represent "a new paradigm as an alternative to connectionism...we
> think with those proteins".
>
> *Metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR)* have played an important role
> in our work about how our brains learn since our
> *Journal of Neuroscience* article in 1996 on this topic:
>
> Fiala, J.C., Grossberg, S., and Bullock, D. (1996). Metabotropic glutamate
> receptor activation in cerebellar Purkinje cells
> as substrate for adaptive timing of the classically conditioned eye blink
> response. *Journal of Neuroscience*, *16*, 3760-3774.
> https://sites.bu.edu/steveg/files/2016/06/FiaGroBul1996JouNeuroscience.pdf
>
> Later work modeled how they play a role in many other brain regions to
> regulate multiple types of behaviors. For example:
>
> Grossberg, S. and Merrill, J.W.L. (1992). A neural network model of
> adaptively timed reinforcement learning and hippocampal dynamics.
> *Cognitive Brain Research*, *1*, 3-38.
> https://sites.bu.edu/steveg/files/2016/06/GroMer1992CogRes.pdf
>
> Grossberg, S. and Merrill, J.W.L. (l996). The hippocampus and cerebellum
> in adaptively timed learning, recognition, and movement.
> *Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,* *8*, 257-277.
> https://sites.bu.edu/steveg/files/2016/06/GroMer96.pdf
>
> Brown, J., Bullock, D., and Grossberg, S. (1999). How the basal ganglia
> use parallel excitatory and inhibitory learning pathways
> to selectively respond to unexpected rewarding cues. *Journal of
> Neuroscience,* *19*, 10502-10511.
> https://sites.bu.edu/steveg/files/2016/06/BroBulGro99.pdf
>
> Grossberg, S., and Vladusich, T. (2010). How do children learn to follow
> gaze, share joint attention, imitate their teachers, and use tools
> during social interactions? *Neural Networks*, *23*, 940-965.
> https://sites.bu.edu/steveg/files/2016/06/GrossbergVladusichNN2010.pdf
>
> Franklin, D. J., and Grossberg, S. (2017). A neural model of normal and
> abnormal learning and memory consolidation:
> Adaptively timed conditioning, hippocampus, amnesia, neurotrophins, and
> consciousness.
> *Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience*, 17, 24-76.
> https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13415-016-0463-y
>
> I hope that you find these references useful in your own work, and welcome
> any comments or questions that you may have about
> these results.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Steve
>
>
> Stephen Grossberg
> sites.bu.edu/steveg
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Connectionists <connectionists-bounces at mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu> on
> behalf of Danko Nikolic <danko.nikolic at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, January 31, 2023 12:43 PM
> *To:* Post Connectionists <connectionists at mailman.srv.cs.cmu.edu>
> *Subject:* Connectionists: Transient subnetwork selection: a new paradigm
> to replace connectionism?
>
> Dear all,
>
> I am happy to announce that my paper, the draft of which has been
> discussed on this list, has yesterday finally been published after a
> peer review.
>
> This is probably the most important paper I have done in my career so far.
>
> To remind you, the paper proposes a new paradigm as an alternative to
> connectionism. To understand the mind, synapses are not so important any
> more. Instead, critical are some other types of proteins on the neural
> membrane. These proteins have the capability to transiently select
> subnetworks that will be functional in the next few seconds or minutes. The
> paradigm proposes that cognition emerges from those transient subnetwork
> selections (and not from network computations of the classical, the
> so-called connectionist paradigm). The proteins in question are
> metabotropic receptors and G protein-gated ion channels. Simply put, we
> think with those proteins. A result of a thought is a new state of network
> pathways, not the activity of neurons.
>
> I would like to thank the list for many of the comments that I received
> and that helped me improve the manuscript. For example, very useful was the
> information on the learning algorithms able to learn the n-bit parity
> problem (aka, generalized XOR), which I used to illustrate the scaling
> problems of deep learning. This made my supplementary materials much
> better.
>
> The paper can be downloaded without a paywall for 50 days, here:
> https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1gVvg5Fq7aXeir
>
> The new version of the paper is much better than the original draft. It
> has more information, clearer explanations and improved structure.
>
> I hope the paper inspires people to investigate possibilities beyond
> connectionism both for understanding the brain and for building AI.
>
> For myself, I would love to build an AI based on these principles.
>
> Thanks a lot.
>
> Danko
>
>
> Dr. Danko Nikolić
> www.danko-nikolic.com
> https://www.linkedin.com/in/danko-nikolic/
> -- I wonder, how is the brain able to generate insight? --
>
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