Fast Analog Computation in Networks of Spiking Neurons Using Unreliable Synapses

T. Natschlaeger and W. Maass

Abstract:

We investigate through theoretical analysis and computer simulations the consequences of unreliable synapses for fast analog computations in networks of spiking neurons, with analog variables encoded by the firing activities of pools of spiking neurons. Our results suggest that the known unreliability of synaptic transmission may be viewed as a useful tool for analog computing, rather than as a ``bug'' in neuronal hardware. We also investigate computations on analog time series encoded by the firing activities of pools of spiking neurons.

Reference: T. Natschlaeger and W. Maass. Fast analog computation in networks of spiking neurons using unreliable synapses. In ESANN'99 Proceedings of the European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, pages 417-422, Bruges, Belgium, 1999.