Simulation Of Spiking Neural Networks Research Articles

Efficient parameter calibration and real-time simulation of large-scale spiking neural networks with GeNN and NEST.

Spiking neural networks (SNNs) represent the state-of-the-art approach to the biologically realistic modeling of nervous system function. The systematic calibration for multiple free model parameters is necessary to achieve robust network function and demands high computing power and large memory resources. Special requirements arise from closed-loop model simulation in virtual environments and from real-time simulation in robotic application. Here, we compare two complementary approaches to efficient large-scale and real-time SNN simulation. The widely used NEural Simulation Tool (NEST) parallelizes simulation across multiple CPU cores. The GPU-enhanced Neural Network (GeNN) simulator uses the highly parallel GPU-based architecture to gain simulation speed. We quantify fixed and variable simulation costs on single machines with different hardware configurations. As a benchmark model, we use a spiking cortical attractor network with a topology of densely connected excitatory and inhibitory neuron clusters with homogeneous or distributed synaptic time constants and in comparison to the random balanced network. We show that simulation time scales linearly with the simulated biological model time and, for large networks, approximately linearly with the model size as dominated by the number of synaptic connections. Additional fixed costs with GeNN are almost independent of model size, while fixed costs with NEST increase linearly with model size. We demonstrate how GeNN can be used for simulating networks with up to 3.5 · 106 neurons (> 3 · 1012synapses) on a high-end GPU, and up to 250, 000 neurons (25 · 109 synapses) on a low-cost GPU. Real-time simulation was achieved for networks with 100, 000 neurons. Network calibration and parameter grid search can be efficiently achieved using batch processing. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches for different use cases.

Brian2CUDA: Flexible and Efficient Simulation of Spiking Neural Network Models on GPUs.

Graphics processing units (GPUs) are widely available and have been used with great success to accelerate scientific computing in the last decade. These advances, however, are often not available to researchers interested in simulating spiking neural networks, but lacking the technical knowledge to write the necessary low-level code. Writing low-level code is not necessary when using the popular Brian simulator, which provides a framework to generate efficient CPU code from high-level model definitions in Python. Here, we present Brian2CUDA, an open-source software that extends the Brian simulator with a GPU backend. Our implementation generates efficient code for the numerical integration of neuronal states and for the propagation of synaptic events on GPUs, making use of their massively parallel arithmetic capabilities. We benchmark the performance improvements of our software for several model types and find that it can accelerate simulations by up to three orders of magnitude compared to Brian's CPU backend. Currently, Brian2CUDA is the only package that supports Brian's full feature set on GPUs, including arbitrary neuron and synapse models, plasticity rules, and heterogeneous delays. When comparing its performance with Brian2GeNN, another GPU-based backend for the Brian simulator with fewer features, we find that Brian2CUDA gives comparable speedups, while being typically slower for small and faster for large networks. By combining the flexibility of the Brian simulator with the simulation speed of GPUs, Brian2CUDA enables researchers to efficiently simulate spiking neural networks with minimal effort and thereby makes the advancements of GPU computing available to a larger audience of neuroscientists.

EvtSNN: Event-driven SNN simulator optimized by population and pre-filtering.

Recently, spiking neural networks (SNNs) have been widely studied by researchers due to their biological interpretability and potential application of low power consumption. However, the traditional clock-driven simulators have the problem that the accuracy is limited by the time-step and the lateral inhibition failure. To address this issue, we introduce EvtSNN (Event SNN), a faster SNN event-driven simulator inspired by EDHA (Event-Driven High Accuracy). Two innovations are proposed to accelerate the calculation of event-driven neurons. Firstly, the intermediate results can be reused in population computing without repeated calculations. Secondly, unnecessary peak calculations will be skipped according to a condition. In the MNIST classification task, EvtSNN took 56 s to complete one epoch of unsupervised training and achieved 89.56% accuracy, while EDHA takes 642 s. In the benchmark experiments, the simulation speed of EvtSNN is 2.9–14.0 times that of EDHA under different network scales.

Toward the Optimal Design and FPGA Implementation of Spiking Neural Networks.

The performance of a biologically plausible spiking neural network (SNN) largely depends on the model parameters and neural dynamics. This article proposes a parameter optimization scheme for improving the performance of a biologically plausible SNN and a parallel on-field-programmable gate array (FPGA) online learning neuromorphic platform for the digital implementation based on two numerical methods, namely, the Euler and third-order Runge-Kutta (RK3) methods. The optimization scheme explores the impact of biological time constants on information transmission in the SNN and improves the convergence rate of the SNN on digit recognition with a suitable choice of the time constants. The parallel digital implementation leads to a significant speedup over software simulation on a general-purpose CPU. The parallel implementation with the Euler method enables around 180× ( 20× ) training (inference) speedup over a Pytorch-based SNN simulation on CPU. Moreover, compared with previous work, our parallel implementation shows more than 300× ( 240× ) improvement on speed and 180× ( 250× ) reduction in energy consumption for training (inference). In addition, due to the high-order accuracy, the RK3 method is demonstrated to gain 2× training speedup over the Euler method, which makes it suitable for online training in real-time applications.

Beyond LIF Neurons on Neuromorphic Hardware.

Neuromorphic systems aim to provide accelerated low-power simulation of Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs), typically featuring simple and efficient neuron models such as the Leaky Integrate-and-Fire (LIF) model. Biologically plausible neuron models developed by neuroscientists are largely ignored in neuromorphic computing due to their increased computational costs. This work bridges this gap through implementation and evaluation of a single compartment Hodgkin-Huxley (HH) neuron and a multi-compartment neuron incorporating dendritic computation on the SpiNNaker, and SpiNNaker2 prototype neuromorphic systems. Numerical accuracy of the model implementations is benchmarked against reference models in the NEURON simulation environment, with excellent agreement achieved by both the fixed- and floating-point SpiNNaker implementations. The computational cost is evaluated in terms of timing measurements profiling neural state updates. While the additional model complexity understandably increases computation times relative to LIF models, it was found a wallclock time increase of only 8× was observed for the HH neuron (11× for the mutlicompartment model), demonstrating the potential of hardware accelerators in the next-generation neuromorphic system to optimize implementation of complex neuron models. The benefits of models directly corresponding to biophysiological data are demonstrated: HH neurons are able to express a range of output behaviors not captured by LIF neurons; and the dendritic compartment provides the first implementation of a spiking multi-compartment neuron model with XOR-solving capabilities on neuromorphic hardware. The work paves the way for inclusion of more biologically representative neuron models in neuromorphic systems, and showcases the benefits of hardware accelerators included in the next-generation SpiNNaker2 architecture.

Fast Simulation of a Multi-Area Spiking Network Model of Macaque Cortex on an MPI-GPU Cluster.

Spiking neural network models are increasingly establishing themselves as an effective tool for simulating the dynamics of neuronal populations and for understanding the relationship between these dynamics and brain function. Furthermore, the continuous development of parallel computing technologies and the growing availability of computational resources are leading to an era of large-scale simulations capable of describing regions of the brain of ever larger dimensions at increasing detail. Recently, the possibility to use MPI-based parallel codes on GPU-equipped clusters to run such complex simulations has emerged, opening up novel paths to further speed-ups. NEST GPU is a GPU library written in CUDA-C/C++ for large-scale simulations of spiking neural networks, which was recently extended with a novel algorithm for remote spike communication through MPI on a GPU cluster. In this work we evaluate its performance on the simulation of a multi-area model of macaque vision-related cortex, made up of about 4 million neurons and 24 billion synapses and representing 32 mm2 surface area of the macaque cortex. The outcome of the simulations is compared against that obtained using the well-known CPU-based spiking neural network simulator NEST on a high-performance computing cluster. The results show not only an optimal match with the NEST statistical measures of the neural activity in terms of three informative distributions, but also remarkable achievements in terms of simulation time per second of biological activity. Indeed, NEST GPU was able to simulate a second of biological time of the full-scale macaque cortex model in its metastable state 3.1× faster than NEST using 32 compute nodes equipped with an NVIDIA V100 GPU each. Using the same configuration, the ground state of the full-scale macaque cortex model was simulated 2.4× faster than NEST.

Deploying and Optimizing Embodied Simulations of Large-Scale Spiking Neural Networks on HPC Infrastructure.

Simulating the brain-body-environment trinity in closed loop is an attractive proposal to investigate how perception, motor activity and interactions with the environment shape brain activity, and vice versa. The relevance of this embodied approach, however, hinges entirely on the modeled complexity of the various simulated phenomena. In this article, we introduce a software framework that is capable of simulating large-scale, biologically realistic networks of spiking neurons embodied in a biomechanically accurate musculoskeletal system that interacts with a physically realistic virtual environment. We deploy this framework on the high performance computing resources of the EBRAINS research infrastructure and we investigate the scaling performance by distributing computation across an increasing number of interconnected compute nodes. Our architecture is based on requested compute nodes as well as persistent virtual machines; this provides a high-performance simulation environment that is accessible to multi-domain users without expert knowledge, with a view to enable users to instantiate and control simulations at custom scale via a web-based graphical user interface. Our simulation environment, entirely open source, is based on the Neurorobotics Platform developed in the context of the Human Brain Project, and the NEST simulator. We characterize the capabilities of our parallelized architecture for large-scale embodied brain simulations through two benchmark experiments, by investigating the effects of scaling compute resources on performance defined in terms of experiment runtime, brain instantiation and simulation time. The first benchmark is based on a large-scale balanced network, while the second one is a multi-region embodied brain simulation consisting of more than a million neurons and a billion synapses. Both benchmarks clearly show how scaling compute resources improves the aforementioned performance metrics in a near-linear fashion. The second benchmark in particular is indicative of both the potential and limitations of a highly distributed simulation in terms of a trade-off between computation speed and resource cost. Our simulation architecture is being prepared to be accessible for everyone as an EBRAINS service, thereby offering a community-wide tool with a unique workflow that should provide momentum to the investigation of closed-loop embodiment within the computational neuroscience community.

SNN Simulation Performance Prediction: A Nonempirical Method

As a third generation artificial neural network, spiking neuron network is expected to expand the artificial intelligence world. However, as a more detailed simulation of brain, a single run of spiking neural networks (SNNs) simulation can take hours to days. To get a better prediction of SNN simulation performance, existing work requires gathering result of actual runs to conduct accurate modeling. In this paper, we propose a nonempirical SNN simulation performance prediction method, prototyped in a hybrid CPU-FPGA cluster. Experiments show that our method, without actual simulation run, can get comparable accuracy with orders of magnitude less runtime cost.

The bioinspired traffic sign classifier

Abstract Objectives In this paper the research on developing convolutional spiking neural networks for traffic signs classification is presented. Unlike classical ones, spiking networks reflect the behaviour of biological neurons much more closely, by taking into account the time dimension and event-based operation. Spiking networks running on dedicated neuromorphic platforms, such as Intel Loihi, can operate with greater energy efficiency, hence they are an interesting approach for embedded solutions. Methods For convolutional spiking neural networks' design and simulation, Nengo and NengoDL libraries for Python language were used. Numerous experiments using the Leaky-Integrate-and-Fire (LIF) neuron model were conducted. The training results, with different augmentation methods and number of time steps for input image presentation were compared. Results Finally, an accuracy of up to 97% on the test set was achieved, depending on the number of time steps the input was presented to the SNN. Conclusions The proposed experiments show that using simple convolutional spiking neural network, one can achieve accuracy comparable to the classical network with the same architecture and trained on the same dataset. At the same time, running on dedicated neuromorphic hardware, such solution should be characterized by low latency and low energy consumption.

Homeostatic control of synaptic rewiring in recurrent networks induces the formation of stable memory engrams.

Brain networks store new memories using functional and structural synaptic plasticity. Memory formation is generally attributed to Hebbian plasticity, while homeostatic plasticity is thought to have an ancillary role in stabilizing network dynamics. Here we report that homeostatic plasticity alone can also lead to the formation of stable memories. We analyze this phenomenon using a new theory of network remodeling, combined with numerical simulations of recurrent spiking neural networks that exhibit structural plasticity based on firing rate homeostasis. These networks are able to store repeatedly presented patterns and recall them upon the presentation of incomplete cues. Storage is fast, governed by the homeostatic drift. In contrast, forgetting is slow, driven by a diffusion process. Joint stimulation of neurons induces the growth of associative connections between them, leading to the formation of memory engrams. These memories are stored in a distributed fashion throughout connectivity matrix, and individual synaptic connections have only a small influence. Although memory-specific connections are increased in number, the total number of inputs and outputs of neurons undergo only small changes during stimulation. We find that homeostatic structural plasticity induces a specific type of “silent memories”, different from conventional attractor states.

EDHA: Event-Driven High Accurate Simulator for Spike Neural Networks

In recent years, spiking neural networks (SNNs) have attracted increasingly more researchers to study by virtue of its bio-interpretability and low-power computing. The SNN simulator is an essential tool to accomplish image classification, recognition, speech recognition, and other tasks using SNN. However, most of the existing simulators for spike neural networks are clock-driven, which has two main problems. First, the calculation result is affected by time slice, which obviously shows that when the calculation accuracy is low, the calculation speed is fast, but when the calculation accuracy is high, the calculation speed is unacceptable. The other is the failure of lateral inhibition, which severely affects SNN learning. In order to solve these problems, an event-driven high accurate simulator named EDHA (Event-Driven High Accuracy) for spike neural networks is proposed in this paper. EDHA takes full advantage of the event-driven characteristics of SNN and only calculates when a spike is generated, which is independent of the time slice. Compared with previous SNN simulators, EDHA is completely event-driven, which reduces a large amount of calculations and achieves higher computational accuracy. The calculation speed of EDHA in the MNIST classification task is more than 10 times faster than that of mainstream clock-driven simulators. By optimizing the spike encoding method, the former can even achieve more than 100 times faster than the latter. Due to the cross-platform characteristics of Java, EDHA can run on x86, amd64, ARM, and other platforms that support Java.

Robust neuromorphic coupled oscillators for adaptive pacemakers

Neural coupled oscillators are a useful building block in numerous models and applications. They were analyzed extensively in theoretical studies and more recently in biologically realistic simulations of spiking neural networks. The advent of mixed-signal analog/digital neuromorphic electronic circuits provides new means for implementing neural coupled oscillators on compact, low-power, spiking neural network hardware platforms. However, their implementation on this noisy, low-precision and inhomogeneous computing substrate raises new challenges with regards to stability and controllability. In this work, we present a robust, spiking neural network model of neural coupled oscillators and validate it with an implementation on a mixed-signal neuromorphic processor. We demonstrate its robustness showing how to reliably control and modulate the oscillator’s frequency and phase shift, despite the variability of the silicon synapse and neuron properties. We show how this ultra-low power neural processing system can be used to build an adaptive cardiac pacemaker modulating the heart rate with respect to the respiration phases and compare it with surface ECG and respiratory signal recordings from dogs at rest. The implementation of our model in neuromorphic electronic hardware shows its robustness on a highly variable substrate and extends the toolbox for applications requiring rhythmic outputs such as pacemakers.

A spiking central pattern generator for the control of a simulated lamprey robot running on SpiNNaker and Loihi neuromorphic boards

Central pattern generator (CPG) models have long been used to investigate both the neural mechanisms that underlie animal locomotion, as well as for robotic research. In this work we propose a spiking central pattern generator (SCPG) neural network and its implementation on neuromorphic hardware as a means to control a simulated lamprey model. To construct our SCPG model, we employ the naturally emerging dynamical systems that arise through the use of recurrent neural populations in the neural engineering framework (NEF). We define the mathematical formulation behind our model, which consists of a system of coupled abstract oscillators modulated by high-level signals, capable of producing a variety of output gaits. We show that with this mathematical formulation of the CPG model, the model can be turned into a spiking neural network (SNN) that can be easily simulated with Nengo, an SNN simulator. The SCPG model is then used to produce the swimming gaits of a simulated lamprey robot model in various scenarios. We show that by modifying the input to the network, which can be provided by sensory information, the robot can be controlled dynamically in direction and pace. The proposed methodology can be generalized to other types of CPGs suitable for both engineering applications and scientific research. We test our system on two neuromorphic platforms, SpiNNaker and Loihi. Finally, we show that this category of spiking algorithms displays a promising potential to exploit the theoretical advantages of neuromorphic hardware in terms of energy efficiency and computational speed.

Spiking neural networks and hippocampal function: A web-accessible survey of simulations, modeling methods, and underlying theories

Computational modeling has contributed to hippocampal research in a wide variety of ways and through a large diversity of approaches, reflecting the many advanced cognitive roles of this brain region. The intensively studied neuron type circuitry of the hippocampus is a particularly conducive substrate for spiking neural models. Here we present an online knowledge base of spiking neural network simulations of hippocampal functions. First, we overview theories involving the hippocampal formation in subjects such as spatial representation, learning, and memory. Then we describe an original literature mining process to organize published reports in various key aspects, including: (i) subject area (e.g., navigation, pattern completion, epilepsy); (ii) level of modeling detail (Hodgkin-Huxley, integrate-and-fire, etc.); and (iii) theoretical framework (attractor dynamics, oscillatory interference, self-organizing maps, and others). Moreover, every peer-reviewed publication is also annotated to indicate the specific neuron types represented in the network simulation, establishing a direct link with the Hippocampome.org portal. The web interface of the knowledge base enables dynamic content browsing and advanced searches, and consistently presents evidence supporting every annotation. Moreover, users are given access to several types of statistical reports about the collection, a selection of which is summarized in this paper. This open access resource thus provides an interactive platform to survey spiking neural network models of hippocampal functions, compare available computational methods, and foster ideas for suitable new directions of research.

Reconfigurable MoS2 Memtransistors for Continuous Learning in Spiking Neural Networks

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are growing computing paradigms, but current algorithms incur undesirable energy costs on conventional hardware platforms, thus motivating the exploration of more efficient neuromorphic architectures. Toward this end, we introduce here a memtransistor with gate-tunable dynamic learning behavior. By fabricating memtransistors from monolayer MoS2 grown on sapphire, the relative importance of the vertical field effect from the gate is enhanced, thereby heightening reconfigurability of the device response. Inspired by biological systems, gate pulses are used to modulate potentiation and depression, resulting in diverse learning curves and simplified spike-timing-dependent plasticity that facilitate unsupervised learning in simulated spiking neural networks. This capability also enables continuous learning, which is a previously underexplored cognitive concept in neuromorphic computing. Overall, this work demonstrates that the reconfigurability of memtransistors provides unique hardware accelerator opportunities for energy efficient artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Photoactive Electro‐Controlled Visual Perception Memory for Emulating Synaptic Metaplasticity and Hebbian Learning

AbstractIn bionic technology, it has become an innovative process imitating the functionality and structuralism of human biological systems to exploit advanced artificial intelligent machines. Bionics plays a significant role in environmental protection, especially for its low energy loss. By fusing the concept of receptor‐like sensing component and synapse‐like memory, the photoactive electro‐controlled optical sensory memory (PE‐SM) is proposed and realized in a single device, which endows a simple methodology of reducing power consumption by photoactive electro‐control. The PE‐SM is the system built with the stacked atomically thick materials, in which rhenium diselenide serves as a robust photosensor, hexagonal boron nitride serves as a tunneling dielectric, and graphene serves as a charge‐storage layer. With the features of the PE‐SM, it performs synaptic metaplasticities under optical spikes. In addition, a simulated spiking neural network composed of 24 × 24 PE‐SMs is further presented in an unsupervised machine learning environment, performing image recognition via the Hebbian rule. The PE‐SM not only improves the neuromorphic computing efficiency but also simplifies the circuit‐size structure. Eventually, the concept of photoactive electro‐control can extend to other photosensitive 2D materials and provide a new approach of constructing either visual perception memory or photonic synaptic devices.

Benchmarking Highly Parallel Hardware for Spiking Neural Networks in Robotics.

Animal brains still outperform even the most performant machines with significantly lower speed. Nonetheless, impressive progress has been made in robotics in the areas of vision, motion- and path planning in the last decades. Brain-inspired Spiking Neural Networks (SNN) and the parallel hardware necessary to exploit their full potential have promising features for robotic application. Besides the most obvious platform for deploying SNN, brain-inspired neuromorphic hardware, Graphical Processing Units (GPU) are well capable of parallel computing as well. Libraries for generating CUDA-optimized code, like GeNN and affordable embedded systems make them an attractive alternative due to their low price and availability. While a few performance tests exist, there has been a lack of benchmarks targeting robotic applications. We compare the performance of a neural Wavefront algorithm as a representative of use cases in robotics on different hardware suitable for running SNN simulations. The SNN used for this benchmark is modeled in the simulator-independent declarative language PyNN, which allows using the same model for different simulator backends. Our emphasis is the comparison between Nest, running on serial CPU, SpiNNaker, as a representative of neuromorphic hardware, and an implementation in GeNN. Beyond that, we also investigate the differences of GeNN deployed to different hardware. A comparison between the different simulators and hardware is performed with regard to total simulation time, average energy consumption per run, and the length of the resulting path. We hope that the insights gained about performance details of parallel hardware solutions contribute to developing more efficient SNN implementations for robotics.

Arpra: An Arbitrary Precision Range Analysis Library.

Motivated by the challenge of investigating the reproducibility of spiking neural network simulations, we have developed the Arpra library: an open source C library for arbitrary precision range analysis based on the mixed Interval Arithmetic (IA)/Affine Arithmetic (AA) method. Arpra builds on this method by implementing a novel mixed trimmed IA/AA, in which the error terms of AA ranges are minimised using information from IA ranges. Overhead rounding error is minimised by computing intermediate values as extended precision variables using the MPFR library. This optimisation is most useful in cases where the ratio of overhead error to range width is high. Three novel affine term reduction strategies improve memory efficiency by merging affine terms of lesser significance. We also investigate the viability of using mixed trimmed IA/AA and other AA methods for studying reproducibility in unstable spiking neural network simulations.

Event-Based Update of Synapses in Voltage-Based Learning Rules.

Due to the point-like nature of neuronal spiking, efficient neural network simulators often employ event-based simulation schemes for synapses. Yet many types of synaptic plasticity rely on the membrane potential of the postsynaptic cell as a third factor in addition to pre- and postsynaptic spike times. In some learning rules membrane potentials not only influence synaptic weight changes at the time points of spike events but in a continuous manner. In these cases, synapses therefore require information on the full time course of membrane potentials to update their strength which a priori suggests a continuous update in a time-driven manner. The latter hinders scaling of simulations to realistic cortical network sizes and relevant time scales for learning. Here, we derive two efficient algorithms for archiving postsynaptic membrane potentials, both compatible with modern simulation engines based on event-based synapse updates. We theoretically contrast the two algorithms with a time-driven synapse update scheme to analyze advantages in terms of memory and computations. We further present a reference implementation in the spiking neural network simulator NEST for two prototypical voltage-based plasticity rules: the Clopath rule and the Urbanczik-Senn rule. For both rules, the two event-based algorithms significantly outperform the time-driven scheme. Depending on the amount of data to be stored for plasticity, which heavily differs between the rules, a strong performance increase can be achieved by compressing or sampling of information on membrane potentials. Our results on computational efficiency related to archiving of information provide guidelines for the design of learning rules in order to make them practically usable in large-scale networks.

FNS allows efficient event-driven spiking neural network simulations based on a neuron model supporting spike latency

Neural modelling tools are increasingly employed to describe, explain, and predict the human brain’s behavior. Among them, spiking neural networks (SNNs) make possible the simulation of neural activity at the level of single neurons, but their use is often threatened by the resources needed in terms of processing capabilities and memory. Emerging applications where a low energy burden is required (e.g. implanted neuroprostheses) motivate the exploration of new strategies able to capture the relevant principles of neuronal dynamics in reduced and efficient models. The recent Leaky Integrate-and-Fire with Latency (LIFL) spiking neuron model shows some realistic neuronal features and efficiency at the same time, a combination of characteristics that may result appealing for SNN-based brain modelling. In this paper we introduce FNS, the first LIFL-based SNN framework, which combines spiking/synaptic modelling with the event-driven approach, allowing us to define heterogeneous neuron groups and multi-scale connectivity, with delayed connections and plastic synapses. FNS allows multi-thread, precise simulations, integrating a novel parallelization strategy and a mechanism of periodic dumping. We evaluate the performance of FNS in terms of simulation time and used memory, and compare it with those obtained with neuronal models having a similar neurocomputational profile, implemented in NEST, showing that FNS performs better in both scenarios. FNS can be advantageously used to explore the interaction within and between populations of spiking neurons, even for long time-scales and with a limited hardware configuration.