Theories of the human brain

Computational deep learning is closely related to a class of theories of brain development

(specifically, neocortical development) proposed by cognitive neuroscientists in the early
1990s.[271] An approachable summary of this work is Elman, et al.'s 1996 book "Rethinking
Innateness"[272] (see also: Shrager and Johnson;[273] Quartz and Sejnowski[274]). As these
developmental theories were also instantiated in computational models, they are technical
predecessors of purely computationally motivated deep learning models. These
developmental models share the interesting property that various proposed learning dynamics
in the brain (e.g., a wave of nerve growth factor) conspire to support the self-organization of
just the sort of inter-related neural networks utilized in the later, purely computational deep
learning models; and such computational neural networks seem analogous to a view of the
brain's neocortex as a hierarchy of filters in which each layer captures some of the
information in the operating environment, and then passes the remainder, as well as modified
base signal, to other layers further up the hierarchy. This process yields a self-organizing
stack of transducers, well-tuned to their operating environment. As described in The New
York Times in 1995: "...the infant's brain seems to organize itself under the influence of
waves of so-called trophic-factors ... different regions of the brain become connected
sequentially, with one layer of tissue maturing before another and so on until the whole brain
is mature."[275]
The importance of deep learning with respect to the evolution and development of human
cognition did not escape the attention of these researchers. One aspect of human development
that distinguishes us from our nearest primate neighbors may be changes in the timing of
development.[276] Among primates, the human brain remains relatively plastic until late in the
post-natal period, whereas the brains of our closest relatives are more completely formed by
birth. Thus, humans have greater access to the complex experiences afforded by being out in
the world during the most formative period of brain development. This may enable us to
"tune in" to rapidly changing features of the environment that other animals, more
constrained by evolutionary structuring of their brains, are unable to take account of. To the
extent that these changes are reflected in similar timing changes in hypothesized wave of
cortical development, they may also lead to changes in the extraction of information from the
stimulus environment during the early self-organization of the brain. Of course, along with
this flexibility comes an extended period of immaturity, during which we are dependent upon
our caretakers and our community for both support and training. The theory of deep learning
therefore sees the coevolution of culture and cognition as a fundamental condition of human
evolution.[277]