Piecewise quadratic neuron model: A tool for close-to-biology spiking neuronal network simulation on dedicated hardware

Abstract

Spiking neuron models simulate neuronal activities and allow us to analyze and reproduce the information processing of the nervous system. However, ionic-conductance models, which can faithfully reproduce neuronal activities, require a huge computational cost, while integral-firing models, which are computationally inexpensive, have some difficulties in reproducing neuronal activities. Here we propose a Piecewise Quadratic Neuron (PQN) model based on a qualitative modeling approach that aims to reproduce only the key dynamics behind neuronal activities. We demonstrate that PQN models can accurately reproduce the responses of ionic-conductance models of major neuronal classes to stimulus inputs of various magnitudes. In addition, the PQN model is designed to support the efficient implementation on digital arithmetic circuits for use as silicon neurons, and we confirm that the PQN model consumes much fewer circuit resources than the ionic-conductance models. This model intends to serve as a tool for building a large-scale closer-to-biology spiking neural network.