  This paper presents a constructive algorithm that achieves successful
one-shot learning of hidden spike-patterns in a competitive detection task. It
has previously been shown (Masquelier et al., 2008) that spike-timing-dependent
plasticity (STDP) and lateral inhibition can result in neurons competitively
tuned to repeating spike-patterns concealed in high rates of overall
presynaptic activity. One-shot construction of neurons with synapse weights
calculated as estimates of converged STDP outcomes results in immediate
selective detection of hidden spike-patterns. The capability of continual
learning is demonstrated through the successful one-shot detection of new sets
of spike-patterns introduced after long intervals in the simulation time.
Simulation expansion (Lightheart et al., 2013) has been proposed as an approach
to the development of constructive algorithms that are compatible with
simulations of biological neural networks. A simulation of a biological neural
network may have orders of magnitude fewer neurons and connections than the
related biological neural systems; therefore, simulated neural networks can be
assumed to be a subset of a larger neural system. The constructive algorithm is
developed using simulation expansion concepts to perform an operation
equivalent to the exchange of neurons between the simulation and the larger
hypothetical neural system. The dynamic selection of neurons to simulate within
a larger neural system (hypothetical or stored in memory) may be a starting
point for a wide range of developments and applications in machine learning and
the simulation of biology.
