Learning by Forgetting: Deep Neural Networks and the Jennifer Aniston Neuron

Have you ever heard about the Jennifer Aniston neuron? In 2005, a group of neuroscientists led by Rodrigo Quian Quiroga published a paper detailing his discovery of a type of neuron that steadily fired whenever the person was shown a photo of Jennifer Aniston. The neuron in question was not activated when presented with photos of other celebrities. Obviously, we don’t all have Jennifer Aniston neurons and those specialized neurons can be activated in response to pictures of other celebrities. However, the Aniston neuron has become one of the most powerful metaphors in neuroscience to describe neurons that focus on a very specific task.