AI Machine Learning Breakthrough Is a Twist on Brain Replay

Recently, researchers affiliated with the Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Cambridge, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Rice University created a new way of adapting a neuroscience concept called "brain replay" to the digital realm of artificial neural networks to enable continuous learning. From a neuroscience perspective, the concept of brain replay is analogous to a streaming service that activates repeat showings from its vast archives of stored pre-recorded content. The brain can replay memories by reactivating the neural activity patterns that represent prior experiences, whether asleep or awake. This ability for memory replay starts in the hippocampus, then continues in the cortex. The research trio of Hava Siegelmann, Andreas Tolias, and Gido van de Ven published a study in Nature Communications on August 13, 2020, that shows state-of-the-art performance from neural networks by deploying a new twist on mimicking brain replay.