Memetics and Neural Models of Conspiracy Theories
This addresses the problem of understanding distorted belief formation for cognitive science and neuroscience, but it is incremental as it builds on existing neurodynamic models.
The paper investigates the rapid freezing of high neuroplasticity (RFHN) mechanism to explain how conspiracy theories form in the brain, finding through neural network simulations that short learning with high plasticity followed by rapid plasticity decrease creates memes with large attractor basins that distort memory representations.
Conspiracy theories, or in general seriously distorted beliefs, are widespread. How and why are they formed in the brain is still more a matter of speculation rather than science. In this paper one plausible mechanisms is investigated: rapid freezing of high neuroplasticity (RFHN). Emotional arousal increases neuroplasticity and leads to creation of new pathways spreading neural activation. Using the language of neurodynamics a meme is defined as quasi-stable associative memory attractor state. Depending on the temporal characteristics of the incoming information and the plasticity of the network, memory may self-organize creating memes with large attractor basins, linking many unrelated input patterns. Memes with fake rich associations distort relations between memory states. Simulations of various neural network models trained with competitive Hebbian learning (CHL) on stationary and non-stationary data lead to the same conclusion: short learning with high plasticity followed by rapid decrease of plasticity leads to memes with large attraction basins, distorting input pattern representations in associative memory. Such system-level models may be used to understand creation of distorted beliefs and formation of conspiracy memes, understood as strong attractor states of the neurodynamics.