“Tell me Tenali do you know the number!
Of the bangles your wife wears everyday?!
Yes my lord! The moment you tell me
The number of steps you climbed today!”
Have you ever wondered how when you drive a car, you would automatically flip the turn signal when you turn and/or lock the car when you get out!?
Many time you may not remember the instant but these acts become automatic after a while! You do not have to think about them! Do not think!
It is natural!
The autobots and AI learning also follow the same theory which also involves death and elimination! A forgivable cruelty!
It is called the Hebbian theory!
read on!
While training for surgery like the Cochlear Implantation; it was always taught to us that the best results are obtained when the surgery is done below the age of 5.
This is because of a phenomenon called Neuroplasticity.
Have you noticed that as an adult when you try to learn a new language, it is really difficult. You may still over a period of time learn it but it may not be as normal or without accent if you had learnt the language as a child!
You need to practice and train and then only by repeated practice the language develops or a new skill develops over a period of time and remember that this new ‘skill’ may be still be there but it can get reduced if you do not practice!
That is the simplest practical proof of the Hebbian Theory!
The Hebbian theory was introduced by Donald Hebb in his 1949 book The Organization of Behavior. It is a widely known neuroscientific theory which explains that an increase in synaptic efficacy arises from repeated and persistent stimulation of a postsynaptic cell! This theory explains what is known as neuroplasticity, the adaptation of brain neurons during the learning process.
Like mentioned above a good example is the ability to drive not only a car but even a plane! When you start out, everything you do is incredibly deliberate. You remind yourself to turn on your indicator, to check your blind spot, and so on. However, after years of experience, these processes become so automatic that you perform them without even thinking!
Hebb’s theory postulated that the neurophysiological changes underlying learning and memory occur in three stages: (1) synaptic changes; (2) formation of a “cell assembly”; and (3) formation of a “phase sequence,” which link the neurophysiological changes underlying learning and memory.
Hebb’s concept describes a basic mechanism for synaptic plasticity.
In his book, Hebb stated that “When an axon of cell A is near enough to excite cell B and repeatedly or persistently takes part in firing it, some growth process or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such that A’s efficiency, as one of the cells firing B, is increased.”
In one word it has been summarized by Mo Gawdat in his novel Scary smart as, “The neurons that fire together wire together!”
So what about the death or killing or elimination!? Well that also happens when you do not use your skills for a while!
As an example, it might seem incredibly difficult to memorise the entire multiplication table, however, as you practice recalling the information for months or years the knowledge becomes easily accessible and almost automatic. This is because neural pathways associated with the multiplication table become stronger and faster.
The strengthening of connections between neurons can be compared to the growth of muscles, the more a muscle is used the more it strengthens and grows. Stronger muscles allow us to perform certain activities more efficiently!
This is also the reason why we ask our hearing aid patients to use the aids as much as possible since that makes sure that the nerves stay active and the loss is not worsened!
Cell assemblies can be strengthened through repeated activation, forming a neural pathway, a group of interconnected cells, activation of which represents information stored in long-term memory.
The pathways and neurons that are frequently used are strengthened, while the pathways that are not used are gradually pruned or eliminated.
Since you haven’t used this information in a while, the neural pathways representing this memory became weaker or get eliminated completely!
This is like how it was shown in the movie ‘inside out!’ It is literally out of sight is out of mind and memory! This basically means that even your brain is like the OLX meter! Any information which is not used for some period of time is slowly stored back in some corner attic and finally deleted! That is how your house or rather brain remains tidy!
Now this is a normal brain like yours and mine! Imagine the amount of processing which the brain of ‘the Human computer’ Shakuntala Devi would be doing!? That thought may give me a migraine!
Now do not think that automation would work all the time! So place your alarm and make sure you have turned the lights and other switches off before you sleep!
Shubh ratri!
ramadocblog 