RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Efficiency of local learning rules in threshold-linear associative networks JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2020.07.28.225318 DO 10.1101/2020.07.28.225318 A1 Schönsberg, Francesca A1 Roudi, Yasser A1 Treves, Alessandro YR 2020 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/07/29/2020.07.28.225318.abstract AB We show that associative networks of threshold linear units endowed with Hebbian learning can operate closer to the Gardner optimal storage capacity than their binary counterparts and even surpass this bound. This is largely achieved through a sparsification of the retrieved patterns, which we analyze for theoretical and empirical distributions of activity. As reaching the optimal capacity via non-local learning rules like back-propagation requires slow and neurally implausible training procedures, our results indicate that one-shot self-organized Hebbian learning can be just as efficient.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.