Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Neocortex: a lean mean memory storage machine

Nature Neuroscience volume 19, pages 643–644 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

Connectivity patterns of neocortex exhibit several odd properties: for example, most neighboring excitatory neurons do not connect, which seems curiously wasteful. Brunel's elegant theoretical treatment reveals how optimal information storage can naturally impose these peculiar properties.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Memory storage in recurrently connected neural networks is optimal when most synaptic strengths are zero.

References

  1. Song, S. Sjöström, P.J. Reigl, M. Nelson, S. & Chklovskii, D.B. PLoS Biol. 3, e68 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Lefort, S. Tomm, C. Floyd Sarria, J.C. & Petersen, C.C. Neuron 61, 301–316 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Ko, H. et al. Nature 473, 87–91 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Chklovskii, D.B. Mel, B.W. & Svoboda, K. Nature 431, 782–788 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Brunel, N. Nat. Neurosci. 19, 749–755 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Brunel, N. Hakim, V. Isope, P. Nadal, J.P. & Barbour, B. Neuron 43, 745–757 (2004).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Hopfield, J.J. & Tank, D.W. Science 233, 625–633 (1986).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Stein, R.B. Gossen, E.R. & Jones, K.E. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 6, 389–397 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Clopath, C. Büsing, L. Vasilaki, E. & Gerstner, W. Nat. Neurosci. 13, 344–352 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Druckmann, S. & Chklovskii, D.B. Curr. Biol. 22, 2095–2103 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Varshney, L.R. Sjöström, P.J. & Chklovskii, D.B. Neuron 52, 409–423 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Jiang, X. et al. Science 350, aac9462 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Parker, G.A. & Maynard Smith, J. Nature 348, 27–33 (1990).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Chapeton, J. Gala, R. & Stepanyants, A. Front. Comput. Neurosci. 9, 74 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Chapeton, J. Fares, T. LaSota, D. & Stepanyants, A. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 109, E3614–E3622 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beatriz E.P. Mizusaki is at the Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.,

    Beatriz E P Mizusaki

  2. Armen Stepanyants is in the Department of Physics and Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Complex Systems, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,

    Armen Stepanyants

  3. Dmitri B. Chklovskii is at the Simons Center for Data Analysis, Simons Foundation and New York University Neuroscience Institute, New York, New York, USA.,

    Dmitri B Chklovskii

  4. Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, P. Jesper Sjöström is at the Centre for Research in Neuroscience, Program for Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience, The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal General Hospital, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.,

    P Jesper Sjöström

Authors
  1. Beatriz E P Mizusaki
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Armen Stepanyants
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Dmitri B Chklovskii
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. P Jesper Sjöström
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to P Jesper Sjöström.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mizusaki, B., Stepanyants, A., Chklovskii, D. et al. Neocortex: a lean mean memory storage machine. Nat Neurosci 19, 643–644 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4292

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4292

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing