Title: Cortico-cerebellar networks as decoupled neural interfaces. Abstract: The brain solves the credit assignment problem remarkably well. For credit to be correctly assigned across multiple cortical areas a given area should, in principle, wait for others to finish their computation. How the brain deals with this locking problem has remained unclear. Deep learning methods suffer from similar locking constraints both on the forward and backward phase. Recently, decoupled neural interfaces (DNI) were introduced as a solution to the forward and backward locking problems.
Here we propose that a specialised brain region, the cerebellum, helps the cerebral cortex solve the locking problem closely matching the computations and architecture of DNI. In particular, we propose that classical cerebellar forward and inverse models are equivalent to solving the backward and forward locking problems, respectively. To demonstrate the potential of this framework we focus on modelling a given brain area as a recurrent neural network in which the cerebellum approximates temporal feedback signals as provided by BPTT. We tested the cortico-cerebellar-DNI (CC-DNI) model in a range of sensorimotor and cognitive tasks that have been shown to be cerebellar-dependent. First, we show that the CC-DNI unlocking mechanisms can facilitate learning in a simple target reaching task. Next, by building on the sequential MNIST task we demonstrate that these results generalise to more complex sensorimotor tasks. Our cortico-cerebellar model readily applies to a wider range of modalities, to demonstrate this we tested the model in a cognitive task, caption generation. Models without the cerebellar-DNI component exhibit deficits similar to those observed in cerebellar patients in both motor and cognitive tasks. Moreover, we used CC-DNI to generate a set of specific neuroscience predictions. Finally, we introduce a CC-DNI model with highly sparse connectivity as observed in the cerebellum, which substantially reduces the number of parameters while improving learning through decorrelation.
Overall, our work offers a novel perspective on the cerebellum as a brain-wide decoupling machine for efficient credit assignment and opens a new avenue of research between deep learning and neuroscience.