Overview of Spiking Neural Network Learning Approaches and Their Computational Complexities

Abstract

Spiking neural networks (SNNs) are subjects of a topic that is gaining more and more interest nowadays. They more closely resemble actual neural networks in the brain than their second-generation counterparts, artificial neural networks (ANNs). SNNs have the potential to be more energy efficient than ANNs on event-driven neuromorphic hardware. This can yield drastic maintenance cost reduction for neural network models, as the energy consumption would be much lower in comparison to regular deep learning models hosted in the cloud today. However, such hardware is still not yet widely available. On standard computer architectures consisting mainly of central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) ANNs, due to simpler models of neurons and simpler models of connections between neurons, have the upper hand in terms of execution speed. In general, they also win in terms of learning algorithms, as SNNs do not reach the same levels of performance as their second-generation counterparts in typical machine learning benchmark tasks, such as classification. In this paper, we review existing learning algorithms for spiking neural networks, divide them into categories by type, and assess their computational complexity.