Open Peer Commentary Quartz & Sejnowski: Cognitive development
Stimulus configuration, long-term potentiation, and the hippocampus
Nestor A. Schmajuk a1 a1 Department of Psychology: Experimental, Duke University, Durham, NC 27706
nestor@acpub.duke.edu
Abstract
Shors & Matzel propose that hippocampal LTP increases
the effective salience of discrete external stimuli and thereby
facilitates the induction of memories at distant places. In line with
this suggestion, a neural network model of associative learning and
hippocampal function assumes that LTP increases hippocampal error
signals to the cortex, thereby facilitating stimulus configuration in
association cortex. Computer simulations show that under these
assumptions the model correctly describes the effect of LTP induction
and blockade in classical discriminations and place
learning.
