Learning a synaptic learning rule

Summary form only given, as follows. The authors discuss an original approach to neural modeling based on the idea of searching, with learning methods, for a synaptic learning rule which is biologically plausible and yields networks that are able to learn to perform difficult tasks. The proposed method of automatically finding the learning rule relies on the idea of considering the synaptic modification rule as a parametric function. This function has local inputs and is the same in many neurons. The parameters that define this function can be estimated with known learning methods. For this optimization, particular attention is given to gradient descent and genetic algorithms. In both cases, estimation of this function consists of a joint global optimization of the synaptic modification function and the networks that are learning to perform some tasks. Both network architecture and the learning function can be designed within constraints derived from biological knowledge.>