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Published 1998 | Published
Book Section - Chapter Open

Computing with Action Potentials

Abstract

Most computational engineering based loosely on biology uses continuous variables to represent neural activity. Yet most neurons communicate with action potentials. The engineering view is equivalent to using a rate-code for representing information and for computing. An increasing number of examples are being discovered in which biology may not be using rate codes. Information can be represented using the timing of action potentials, and efficiently computed with in this representation. The "analog match" problem of odour identification is a simple problem which can be efficiently solved using action potential timing and an underlying rhythm. By using adapting units to effect a fundamental change of representation of a problem, we map the recognition of words (having uniform time-warp) in connected speech into the same analog match problem. We describe the architecture and preliminary results of such a recognition system. Using the fast events of biology in conjunction with an underlying rhythm is one way to overcome the limits of an event-driven view of computation. When the intrinsic hardware is much faster than the time scale of change of inputs, this approach can greatly increase the effective computation per unit time on a given quantity of hardware.

Additional Information

© 1998 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The authors thank Sanjoy Mahajan and Erik Winfree for comments and help with preparation of the manuscript. This work was supported in part by the Center for Neuromorphic Systems Engineering as a part of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center Program under grant EEC-9402726. Roweis is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada under an NSERC 1967 Award.

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