Modeling Context-Dependent Acquisition and Extinction Learning (A14)

• Subject Area: Experimental and Theoretical Network Neuroscience
• Term: since 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 316803389

The key hypothesis of this project is that there is no categorical, a priori difference between context and stimuli and that the different roles they play come about due to differences in the statistics of their presentation. We will push our central hypothesis and study in computational models and experimental collaborations which conditions will drive the reinforcement learning model network to intrinsically generate separate representations of context and stimuli. If successful, this would reconcile our key hypothesis of no a priori difference between context and stimuli with the more common view that there is such a difference, because the separate representation is learned on the basis of the contingencies in the world.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1280: Extinction Learning
• Applicant Institution: Ruhr-Universität Bochum
• Project Head: Professor Dr. Sen Cheng