Emergent Self-Attention from Astrocyte-Gated Associative Memory Dynamics

2026-04-28

AI Summary

This work addresses the limitations of traditional associative memory models, which suffer from degraded retrieval performance under high memory load and interference and lack a dynamical systems explanation for self-attention mechanisms. The authors propose a novel Hopfield-type associative memory model incorporating astrocyte-regulated neuronal gain, whose dynamics are governed by an entropy-regularized replicator equation. This formulation naturally yields softmax-normalized pattern similarity allocation over the gain simplex. The resulting coupled system exhibits global convergence and, for the first time, reveals self-attention as an emergent routing behavior modulated by astrocytes from a dynamical systems perspective. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model significantly outperforms classical Hopfield networks and existing neuro-glial baselines under conditions of high memory load and strong interference, achieving markedly higher retrieval accuracy.

Abstract

We introduce a Hopfield-type associative memory in which effective connectivity is multiplicatively modulated by astrocytic gains evolving under an entropy-regularized replicator equation. The coupled neuron-astrocyte dynamics admit a Lyapunov function, ensuring global convergence. At fixed points, astrocytic gains implement a softmax-normalized allocation over pattern similarity scores, yielding a mechanistic realization of self-attention as emergent routing on the gain simplex. In regimes of high memory load and interference, the model significantly improves retrieval accuracy relative to classical Hopfield dynamics and recent neuron-astrocyte baselines. These results establish a dynamical systems framework linking glial modulation, competitive resource allocation, and attention-like computation.

Problem

• associative memory
• self-attention
• astrocyte modulation
• memory retrieval
• neural dynamics

Innovation

• self-attention
• astrocyte-gated dynamics
• associative memory
• replicator equation
• emergent computation