Associative learning in a network model ofHermissenda crassicornis

摘要

A time-varying Resistance-Capacitance (RC) circuit computer model was constructed based on known membrane and synaptic properties of the visualvestibular network of the marine snailHermissenda crassicornis. Specific biophysical properties and synaptic connections of identified neurons are represented as lumped parameters (circuit elements) in the model; in the computer simulation, differential equations are approximated by difference equations. The model's output, membrane potential, an indirect measure of firing frequency, closely parallels the behavioral and electrophysiologic outputs ofHermissendain response to the same input stimuli presented during and after associative learning. The parallelism of the computer modeled and the biologic outputs suggests that the model captures the features necessary and sufficient for associative learning.