A new model for neural circuit formation

Traditionally, models of neural circuit development have proposed two phases: genetically driven neural wiring, followed by environmentally driven pruning and refinement. But this is inconsistent with certain innate behaviors; many animals, for example, are capable of complex problem solving just after birth.

In a perspective piece, Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center postdoctoral fellow Dániel Barabási, along with André Ferreira Castro (University of Cambridge) and Florian Engert (Harvard), propose a new three-system model for neural circuit formation. In the first system, development patterns neural circuits, defining innate understanding. In the second, “Eureka” learning events rapidly update existing knowledge. In the third, synapses are perpetually fine-tuned.

Learn more about how this perspective reshapes our understanding of brain adaptability in Daniel's write-up and read the full paper in Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

Adapted from an update written by Broad Communications.