Volume Transmission Implements Context Factorization to Target Online Credit Assignment and Enable Compositional Generalization

Michael Buice (Allen Institute) · Matthew Bull (Allen Institute + University of Washington) · Po-Chen Kuo (University of Washington) · Andrew Smith (Department of Computer Science)

circuit dynamics compositional generalizationcontext factorizatione-nmrnnemergent propertiesgradient descent approximationhyperparameter robustnessmodularitymultiplicative gatingneuromodulationonline credit assignmentreinforcement learningreward prediction errorsynaptic plasticityvolume transmission

The modern connectivist framing of neural computation emphasizes the primacy of synaptic communication at the risk of neglecting the influence of the surrounding neuromodulatory environment