SYNAPTIC PRUNING IN DEVELOPMENT - A COMPUTATIONAL ACCOUNT

Research with humans and primates shows that the developmental course of the brain involves synaptic overgrowth followed by marked selective pruning. Previous explanations have suggested that this intriguing, s eemingly wasteful phenomenon is utilized to remove ''erroneous'' synap ses. We prove that this interpretation is wrong if synapses are Hebbia n. Under limited metabolic energy resources restricting the amount and strength of synapses, we show that memory performance is maximized if synapses are first overgrown and then pruned following optimal ''mini mal-value'' deletion. This optimal strategy leads to interesting insig hts concerning childhood amnesia.