Nature over Nurture: Functional neuronal circuits emerge in the absence of developmental activity
Dániel L. Barabási · Engert lab, MCB Harvard University
Wed, Apr 5, 2023 · 17:35 UTC
During development, the complex neuronal circuitry of the brain arises from limited information contained in the genome. After the genetic code instructs the birth of neurons, the emergence of brain regions, and the formation of axon tracts, it is believed that neuronal activity plays a critical role in shaping circuits for behavior. Current AI technologies are modeled after the same principle: connections in an initial weight matrix are pruned and strengthened by activity-dependent signals until the network can sufficiently generalize a set of inputs into outputs. Here, we challenge these lea