Molecular dynamics of short-term memory (Q1175175)

In the theory of context-sensitive associative memory described by the author [see Proc. IJCNN, Vol. 1, 67-76 (1989)] a broad range of psychological phenomena of short-term memory (STM) and temporal context (mental set) can be naturally understood as implications of the states of ``residual excitation'' in neural elements. Such hypothetical states of analog dynamic memory were referred to as \(E\)-states. A single protein molecule is treated as a probabilistic finite-state machine. The probabilities of transitions between different conformations (states) of such a molecule (machine) are affected by different external inputs (membrane potential, concentrations of neurotransmitters, etc.). The average numbers of molecules in different conformations affect ionic currents, the rates of catalytic synthesis of second messengers, etc. These average numbers are identified with the \(E\)-states. Though the dynamics of a single molecule is discrete, the \(E\)-states change in a continuous fashion. This continuous dynamics can be highly nonlinear, because it is governed by a potentially quite sophisticated logic within each molecule. The paper discusses some nontrivial possibilities of the outlined formalism.