The overfitted brain hypothesis.

Prince, Luke Y; Richards, Blake A · Patterns (N Y) · 2021

Where this comes from

Abstract

What is the purpose of dreaming? Many scientists have postulated a role for dreaming in learning, often with the aim of improving generative models. In this issue of <i>Patterns</i>, Erik Hoel proposes a novel hypothesis, namely, that dreaming provides a means to reduce overfitting. This hypothesis is interesting both for neuroscience and for the development of new machine-learning systems.