416 research outputs found
Dimensions of Timescales in Neuromorphic Computing Systems
This article is a public deliverable of the EU project "Memory technologies
with multi-scale time constants for neuromorphic architectures" (MeMScales,
https://memscales.eu, Call ICT-06-2019 Unconventional Nanoelectronics, project
number 871371). This arXiv version is a verbatim copy of the deliverable
report, with administrative information stripped. It collects a wide and varied
assortment of phenomena, models, research themes and algorithmic techniques
that are connected with timescale phenomena in the fields of computational
neuroscience, mathematics, machine learning and computer science, with a bias
toward aspects that are relevant for neuromorphic engineering. It turns out
that this theme is very rich indeed and spreads out in many directions which
defy a unified treatment. We collected several dozens of sub-themes, each of
which has been investigated in specialized settings (in the neurosciences,
mathematics, computer science and machine learning) and has been documented in
its own body of literature. The more we dived into this diversity, the more it
became clear that our first effort to compose a survey must remain sketchy and
partial. We conclude with a list of insights distilled from this survey which
give general guidelines for the design of future neuromorphic systems
Self-Organization of Spiking Neural Networks for Visual Object Recognition
On one hand, the visual system has the ability to differentiate between very similar
objects. On the other hand, we can also recognize the same object in images that vary
drastically, due to different viewing angle, distance, or illumination. The ability to
recognize the same object under different viewing conditions is called invariant object
recognition. Such object recognition capabilities are not immediately available after
birth, but are acquired through learning by experience in the visual world.
In many viewing situations different views of the same object are seen in a tem-
poral sequence, e.g. when we are moving an object in our hands while watching it.
This creates temporal correlations between successive retinal projections that can be
used to associate different views of the same object. Theorists have therefore pro-
posed a synaptic plasticity rule with a built-in memory trace (trace rule).
In this dissertation I present spiking neural network models that offer possible
explanations for learning of invariant object representations. These models are based
on the following hypotheses:
1. Instead of a synaptic trace rule, persistent firing of recurrently connected groups
of neurons can serve as a memory trace for invariance learning.
2. Short-range excitatory lateral connections enable learning of self-organizing
topographic maps that represent temporal as well as spatial correlations.
3. When trained with sequences of object views, such a network can learn repre-
sentations that enable invariant object recognition by clustering different views
of the same object within a local neighborhood.
4. Learning of representations for very similar stimuli can be enabled by adaptive
inhibitory feedback connections.
The study presented in chapter 3.1 details an implementation of a spiking neural
network to test the first three hypotheses. This network was tested with stimulus
sets that were designed in two feature dimensions to separate the impact of tempo-
ral and spatial correlations on learned topographic maps. The emerging topographic
maps showed patterns that were dependent on the temporal order of object views
during training. Our results show that pooling over local neighborhoods of the to-
pographic map enables invariant recognition.
Chapter 3.2 focuses on the fourth hypothesis. There we examine how the adaptive
feedback inhibition (AFI) can improve the ability of a network to discriminate between
very similar patterns. The results show that with AFI learning is faster, and the
network learns selective representations for stimuli with higher levels of overlap
than without AFI.
Results of chapter 3.1 suggest a functional role for topographic object representa-
tions that are known to exist in the inferotemporal cortex, and suggests a mechanism
for the development of such representations. The AFI model implements one aspect
of predictive coding: subtraction of a prediction from the actual input of a system. The
successful implementation in a biologically plausible network of spiking neurons
shows that predictive coding can play a role in cortical circuits
Seven properties of self-organization in the human brain
The principle of self-organization has acquired a fundamental significance in the newly emerging field of computational philosophy. Self-organizing systems have been described in various domains in science and philosophy including physics, neuroscience, biology and medicine, ecology, and sociology. While system architecture and their general purpose may depend on domain-specific concepts and definitions, there are (at least) seven key properties of self-organization clearly identified in brain systems: 1) modular connectivity, 2) unsupervised learning, 3) adaptive ability, 4) functional resiliency, 5) functional plasticity, 6) from-local-to-global functional organization, and 7) dynamic system growth. These are defined here in the light of insight from neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience and Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART), and physics to show that self-organization achieves stability and functional plasticity while minimizing structural system complexity. A specific example informed by empirical research is discussed to illustrate how modularity, adaptive learning, and dynamic network growth enable stable yet plastic somatosensory representation for human grip force control. Implications for the design of “strong” artificial intelligence in robotics are brought forward
Accurate detection of spiking motifs in multi-unit raster plots
Recently, interest has grown in exploring the hypothesis that neural activity
conveys information through precise spiking motifs. To investigate this
phenomenon, various algorithms have been proposed to detect such motifs in
Single Unit Activity (SUA) recorded from populations of neurons. In this study,
we present a novel detection model based on the inversion of a generative model
of raster plot synthesis. Using this generative model, we derive an optimal
detection procedure that takes the form of logistic regression combined with
temporal convolution. A key advantage of this model is its differentiability,
which allows us to formulate a supervised learning approach using a gradient
descent on the binary cross-entropy loss. To assess the model's ability to
detect spiking motifs in synthetic data, we first perform numerical
evaluations. This analysis highlights the advantages of using spiking motifs
over traditional firing rate based population codes. We then successfully
demonstrate that our learning method can recover synthetically generated
spiking motifs, indicating its potential for further applications. In the
future, we aim to extend this method to real neurobiological data, where the
ground truth is unknown, to explore and detect spiking motifs in a more natural
and biologically relevant context
Neuromorphic Engineering Editors' Pick 2021
This collection showcases well-received spontaneous articles from the past couple of years, which have been specially handpicked by our Chief Editors, Profs. André van Schaik and Bernabé Linares-Barranco. The work presented here highlights the broad diversity of research performed across the section and aims to put a spotlight on the main areas of interest. All research presented here displays strong advances in theory, experiment, and methodology with applications to compelling problems. This collection aims to further support Frontiers’ strong community by recognizing highly deserving authors
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