Silicon neurons that inhibit to synchronize

Abstract—We present a silicon neuron that uses shunting inhibition (conductance-based) with a synaptic rise-time to achieve synchrony. Synaptic rise-time promotes synchrony by delaying the effect of inhibition, providing an opportune period for neurons to spike together. And shunting inhibition, through its voltage dependence, inhibits neurons that are late more strongly (delaying the spike further), thereby pushing them into phase (in the next cycle). We characterize the soma (cell body) and synapse circuits, fabricated in 0.25µm CMOS. Further, we show that synchronized neurons (population of 256) spike with a period that is proportional to the synaptic rise-time. I. NEUROMORPHIC SYNCHRONIZATION Spike synchrony is important in neural computation, making it desirable to neuromorphic engineers, who aim to reproduce the spike-based computation of the brain in silicon. Whereas synchrony is conspicuously absent in neuromorphic systems, it is conspicuously present in numerous brain regio...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: ISCAS
• Authors: John V. Arthur, Kwabena Boahen
• Keywords: ISCAS 2006, Neurons, Synaptic Rise-time, Synchrony