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SUMMARY:Synaptic origins of working memory capacity -  Misha Tsodyks\, Dep
 artment of Neurobiology\, Weizmann Institute of Science\, Rehovot 76100\, 
 Israel 
DTSTART:20160420T090000Z
DTEND:20160420T100000Z
UID:TALK65679@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Alberto Bernacchia
DESCRIPTION:Working memory plays a fundamental role in many cognitive task
 s. It is thus puzzling that its capacity is extremely limited\, averaging 
 just 4 items for most of the people. The origins of this limit are not cle
 ar. I will consider this issue in the framework of synaptic theory of work
 ing memory. I will derive an analytical estimate for capacity in terms of 
 basic parameters of short-term synaptic plasticity and neuronal spike-gene
 ration dynamics. The obtained expression indicates that capacity can be tu
 ned to the desired level by modulating the average excitation in the netwo
 rk. If time permits\, I will show how this process could account for spont
 aneous chunking of word lists in free recall experiments.
LOCATION:Cambridge University Engineering Department\, CBL\, BE-438 (http:
 //learning.eng.cam.ac.uk/Public/Directions)
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