Abstract.
Spike-timing-dependent synaptic plasticity has recently provided an account of both the acuity of sound localization and the development of temporal-feature maps in the avian auditory system. The dynamics of the resulting learning equation, which describes the evolution of the synaptic weights, is governed by an unstable fixed point. We outline the derivation of the learning equation for both the Poisson neuron model and the leaky integrate-and-fire neuron with conductance synapses. The asymptotic solutions of the learning equation can be described by a spectral representation based on a biorthogonal expansion.
Similar content being viewed by others
Acknowledgments.
The authors thank the Mathematical Biosciences Institute for organizing the Workshop on Auditory Processing, where part of this work was done, and Christian Leibold and Hamish Meffin for a critical reading of the manuscript and detailed comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Burkitt, A., van Hemmen, J. How synapses in the auditory system wax and wane: theoretical perspectives. Biol. Cybern. 89, 318–332 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-003-0437-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-003-0437-3