Learnable Sequential Memory in Coupled Oscillator Networks

Abstract

The Hopfield network established that static memories can be stored as energy minima of a recurrent dynamical system, yet real intelligent agents must navigate \emph{sequences} of memories rather than isolated snapshots.Biological cortex addresses this through a separation of timescales: fast synaptic dynamics encode individual states while slow neuromodulatory processes govern transitions between them. Inspired by this multi-timescale organization, we propose a sequential memory architecture that is fully continuous, admits exponential storage capacity, and is learnable in the sense that the transition structure is carried by a separate routing matrix -- decoupled from the stored patterns, driven by the input context, and free to be chosen, optimized, or learned from data rather than hard-wired into the memory substrate. Specifically, we construct an autonomous three-timescale dynamical system with three coupled layers: a fast Kuramoto layer that stores phase patterns as exponentially stable phase-locked configurations, an intermediate hysteresis layer that enforces reliable dwell times, and a slow attention layer that routes sequential transitions. We provide a complete theoretical analysis of the stability and robustness of each layer, and we validate the full system through numerical simulations of sequential memory retrieval.