Novel neural circuits based on stochastic pulse coding and noise feedback pulse coding

Abstract

Two novel neural circuits based on stochastic pulse coding (SPC) and noise feedback pulse coding (NFPC) are presented. Artificial axon hillock circuits to realize these codings are compared with respect to coding efficiency. The axon hillock circuit using NFPC needs far fewer pulses than that using SPC to convert the analogue neuron body voltage into a pulse sequence under the same signal-to-noise ratio. This result suggests that the NFPC neural circuit can improve the speed of computation and communication compared with the SPC neural circuit. Simulation and experimental results are included.