A neural circuit model for changing the amount of information maintained in short-term memory depending on stimuli relationships

We propose a neural circuit model of changes in amount of information maintained in short-term memory depending on stimuli relationships. The relationships between stimuli are represented by the synchronous firings of overlapping neuronal groups for semantically related stimuli and the excitatory mutual connections for semantically unrelated but simultaneously presented stimuli. We conduct computer simulations to confirm our proposed neural circuit model. The resultant numbers of stored informational input patterns are almost consistent with the maximum numbers in the psychological experiments for both semantically related and unrelated stimuli. This agreement with the psychological experiments suggests that the structure and informational representation of the proposed model are appropriate.