The Architecture of a Biologically Plausible Language Organ
Daniel Mitropolsky Christos H. Papadimitriou
We present a simulated biologically plausible language organ, made up of
stylized but realistic neurons, synapses, brain areas, plasticity, and a
simplified model of sensory perception. We show through experiments that this
model succeeds in an important early step in language acquisition: the learning
of nouns, verbs, and their meanings, from the grounded input of only a modest
number of sentences. Learning in this system is achieved through Hebbian
plasticity, and without backpropagation. Our model goes beyond a parser
previously designed in a similar environment, with the critical addition of a
biologically plausible account for how language can be acquired in the infant's
brain, not just processed by a mature brain.