Neuron array with plastic synapses and programmable dendrites

IEEE Trans Biomed Circuits Syst. 2013 Oct;7(5):631-42. doi: 10.1109/TBCAS.2013.2282616. Epub 2013 Oct 18.

Abstract

We describe a novel neuromorphic chip architecture that models neurons for efficient computation. Traditional architectures of neuron array chips consist of large scale systems that are interfaced with AER for implementing intra- or inter-chip connectivity. We present a chip that uses AER for inter-chip communication but uses fast, reconfigurable FPGA-style routing with local memory for intra-chip connectivity. We model neurons with biologically realistic channel models, synapses and dendrites. This chip is suitable for small-scale network simulations and can also be used for sequence detection, utilizing directional selectivity properties of dendrites, ultimately for use in word recognition.

MeSH terms

  • Dendrites / physiology*
  • Microarray Analysis / instrumentation*
  • Models, Neurological
  • Neural Networks, Computer
  • Neurons / physiology*
  • Plastics
  • Synapses / physiology*

Substances

  • Plastics