The article discusses the concept of associative memory, which enables individuals to recall complete songs by simply hearing a few notes. UC Santa Barbara professor Francesco Bullo explains that memory operates through networks of neurons, rather than isolated cells. The Hopfield network, developed by John Hopfield in 1982, models human memory retrieval and won him a Nobel Prize in 2024. Despite its success, recent research by Bullo and his team highlights gaps in understanding how external inputs affect memory retrieval, proposing a new model for better comprehension of these processes.
"It's a network effect," said UC Santa Barbara mechanical engineering professor Francesco Bullo, explaining that associative memories aren't stored in single brain cells. "Memory storage and memory retrieval are dynamic processes that occur over entire networks of neurons."
The researchers suggest a model of memory retrieval they say is more descriptive of how we experience memory, noting, "the role of external inputs has largely been unexplored, from their effects on neural dynamics to how they facilitate effective memory retrieval."
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