  The problem of catastrophic forgetting has a history of more than 30 years
and has not been completely solved yet. Since the human brain has natural
ability to perform continual lifelong learning, learning from the brain may
provide solutions to this problem. In this paper, we propose a novel
biologically plausible audio-visual integration model (AVIM) based on the
assumption that the integration of audio and visual perceptual information in
the medial temporal lobe during learning is crucial to form concepts and make
continual learning possible. Specifically, we use multi-compartment
Hodgkin-Huxley neurons to build the model and adopt the calcium-based synaptic
tagging and capture as the model's learning rule. Furthermore, we define a new
continual learning paradigm to simulate the possible continual learning process
in the human brain. We then test our model under this new paradigm. Our
experimental results show that the proposed AVIM can achieve state-of-the-art
continual learning performance compared with other advanced methods such as
OWM, iCaRL and GEM. Moreover, it can generate stable representations of objects
during learning. These results support our assumption that concept formation is
essential for continuous lifelong learning and suggest the proposed AVIM is a
possible concept formation mechanism.
