Distributed coding and synaptic pruning

This paper deals with the modelization of synaptic pruning in the developing brain, at the informational level. Relying on the hypotheses of clique-based memory and Hebbian learning, we consider several scenarios to try to understand how reliable point-to-point communication may be achieved in the cortex whereas at birth, neurons are connected to a multitude of other neurons, similar to a connection of broadcast type. It is shown that quasi-perfect transfer of information can be obtained in a plausible way using simple rules if a mechanism of synaptic normalization is implemented at the receiver side.