Is There a Support Vector Machine Hiding in the Dentate Gyrus?

The dentate gyrus has physiological and related behavioral properties suggesting that it implements functions within the hippocampus one of which may be associated with sensory pattern recognition. A top-down dentate gyrus model is defined in terms of an idealized Support Vector Machine pattern recognizer constructed from spiking neurons. The resulting construction offers parallels with dentate gyrus morphology and offers explanation of some of its unique properties, in particular, the mossy fiber pathway and its connection with CA3 pyramidal cells. Derived learning rules suggest properties of the mossy fibers that might be tested experimentally