[Verse 1] In the hippocampus there's a special zone CA3 pyramids talking to their own Dense recurrent collaterals everywhere Largest associational network if you dare Like a Hopfield net inside your brain Autoassociative memory's domain [Chorus] Pattern completion, pattern completion When the cue is partial or has corruption Recurrent excitation pulls you back To the nearest attractor on the track Three inputs working different modes Mossy fibers, perforant path, recurrent codes CA3 is the computational heart Where memories connect and never part [Verse 2] During encoding cells that fire together Strengthen synapses through Hebbian weather Carving energy valleys deep and wide Where neural patterns learn to hide Each attractor holds a memory trace In this recurrent computational space [Chorus] Pattern completion, pattern completion When the cue is partial or has corruption Recurrent excitation pulls you back To the nearest attractor on the track Three inputs working different modes Mossy fibers, perforant path, recurrent codes CA3 is the computational heart Where memories connect and never part [Verse 3] Mossy fibers from the dentate gyrus Sparse and strong like detonators fired at us Teaching signals on proximal dendrites Forcing separation through their mighty bites Stratum lucidum is where they land Encoding new events across the land [Verse 4] Perforant path from entorhinal cortex Diffuse cortical input that connects Distal apical dendrites feel the call In stratum lacunosum-moleculare's hall Cue-driven retrieval when DG's quiet Initiation through this neural riot [Verse 5] Acetylcholine sets the working mode High levels make the network explode With learning signals sharp and clean While low levels let retrieval be seen Theta oscillations pace the dance Between encoding and remembrance [Bridge] Stratum radiatum and oriens too Where recurrent collaterals push on through Completion and association machinery Trading off against the separation spree Content-addressable attractor state Where noisy fragments meet their fate [Chorus] Pattern completion, pattern completion When the cue is partial or has corruption Recurrent excitation pulls you back To the nearest attractor on the track Three inputs working different modes Mossy fibers, perforant path, recurrent codes CA3 is the computational heart Where memories connect and never part [Outro] From partial cues to complete recall CA3's recurrence conquers all The hippocampal formation's core Autoassociative memory and more
← Module 2 — Dentate gyrus: pattern separation | Module 4 — CA1: comparator and output stage →