Adult neurogenesis: Implications on human and computational decision making

Abstract

Adult neurogenesis is the incorporation of new neurons into established, functioning neural circuits. Current theoretical work in the neurogenesis field has suggested that new neurons are of greatest importance in the encoding of new memories, particularly in the ability to fully capture features which are entirely novel or being experienced in a unique way. We present two models of neurogenesis (a spiking, biologically realistic model as well as a basic growing feedforward model) to investigate possible functional implications. We use an information theoretic computational complexity measure to quantitatively analyze the information content encoded with and without neurogenesis in our spiking model. And neural encoding capacity (as a function of neuron maturation) is examined in our simple feedforward network. Finally, we discuss potential functional implications for neurogenesis in high risk environments. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.