The Conditioned Reflex in Cerebral Processing: Aggregated Information Processes form Elements in a Model of Simple Learning

Abstract

Interactions between two information processing systems provide the basis for a model intended to account for development and extinction of the Pavlovian conditioned reflex. One system, with no learning capacity, selects among information inputs relating to drive levels, and regulates the relationships that the second system can develop and store. Information within the model is conveyed by modification of random activity, the coherence of the information being dependent on the level of the random background, which also governs arousal. The second system has available a repertoire of discrete signals and actions, the relationships between which are controlled by adjustment of coherence and by general facilitation and inhibition. Storage of relationships is considered to be a two-stage process involving temporary engrams that gain permanence with increasing coherence, typically as a result of cumulative effects at stable operating points.