arXiv Machine Learning

Local Synaptic Rules Can Implement a SIGReg Gradient Without Backpropagation

arXiv:2607. 21622v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: We prove that two canonical local synaptic learning rules, the potentiation arm of spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP$^+$) and homeostatic plasticity (instantiated here via flashlight granule-cell-like neurons), together can implement the exact gradient of a SIGReg-like self-supervised learning objective.

arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 15

Exploring napping paradigm for Recurrent Spiking Neural Networks

The paper proposes a biologically inspired micro‑sleep technique called napping for recurrent spiking neural networks, combining proportional weight scaling with continuous stochastic membrane activity. Experiments on an unsupervised SNN trained with trace‑based STDP on Gabor‑preprocessed MNIST show that well‑tuned napping can match the classification accuracy of conventional weight normalization while offering different clustering characteristics. The study suggests that napping may be preferable when representational structure is more important than raw classification speed, despite its higher simulation cost.

By Andreas Massey, Stefano Nichele, Aliaksandr Hubin
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 11

Building Supervision into Hebbian Plasticity through Spike Agreement

The paper introduces Supervised Spike Agreement-Dependent Plasticity (Supervised SADP), a gradient‑free Hebbian learning rule that embeds class labels directly into spike‑driven plasticity. SADP trains output neurons with a supervised Hebbian rule and hidden neurons by measuring Cohen’s kappa agreement with the correct‑class output spike train, optionally aggregating over temporal offsets (K‑shift). Across six benchmark and medical imaging datasets, SADP consistently outperforms reward‑modulated STDP, achieving higher accuracy (e.g., 86.46 % on MNIST) and faster training (up to 2.86× speedup).

By Gouri Lakshmi S, Athira Chandrasekharan, Harshit Kumar, Muhammed Sahad E, Bikas C Das, Saptarshi Bej
arXiv AI
Jun 19

Hybrid ANN-SNN Pipeline with Local Plasticity

arXiv:2606. 20151v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: This work proposes a hybrid ANN-SNN pipeline that effectively leverages the rich embeddings of pretrained artificial neural networks (ANNs) to enable high-performance spiking neural networks (SNNs).

By Denis Larionov, Khairutin Shtanchaev, Mikhail Kiselev, Mikhail Korovin, Ivan Tugoy
arXiv Computer Vision
Oct 16

The Dormant Spiking Neuron: A State-Driven Mechanism for Efficient Spiking Neural Networks

The paper introduces the Dormant Spiking Neuron (DSN), a state-driven mechanism that allows neurons in spiking neural networks to enter a dormant state when their membrane potential falls below a negative threshold. This dynamic gating prunes redundant computations at the instance level and is trained end‑to‑end via backpropagation through time with surrogate gradients. Experiments on static and neuromorphic datasets, including ImageNet, show that DSN reduces computational energy by 40% to over 70% and improves baseline SNN accuracy by 1.34%, outperforming state‑of‑the‑art static pruning methods.

By Ruichen Ma, Yicai Chen, Pujun Zhou, Yue Zuo, Chongyang Li, Shuang Liu, Shaogang Hu, Guanchao Qiao
arXiv Machine Learning
6d ago

Capturing Membrane Dynamics and Spike Timing of Human Neurons at Scale using Neural Operators

The paper introduces a neural-operator framework that learns a shared operator across multiple neurons of the same cell type, conditioned on biologically interpretable electrophysiological features. This approach scales biophysically realistic neuron models to large populations while preserving rich cellular dynamics and within-cell-type variability. Evaluation shows accurate reproduction of subthreshold membrane dynamics, spike waveforms, firing-rate responses, and spike timing across major cortical inhibitory neuron types, with predicted electrophysiological feature distributions closely matching detailed simulations and human recordings.

By Luca Ghafourpour, Cindy Zhao, Valentin Duruisseaux, Bahareh Tolooshams, Philip H. Wong, Costas A. Anastassiou, Anima Anandkumar
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 11

Polyhedral Geometry of Time-to-First-Spike Neural Networks

The paper investigates the expressivity of time-to-first-spike spiking neural networks, showing that each neuron's firing time can be represented in a maxout-like form with many constrained affine pieces. It formalizes causal regions as polyhedral sets defined by fixed causal spike sequences and derives bounds on the number of such regions for both shallow and multilayer networks. Experiments confirm that spiking networks can produce richer input-space partitions than conventional feedforward ReLU networks.

By Manjot Singh, Guido Mont\'ufar, Gitta Kutyniok
arXiv AI
Sep 25

ELiSe: Efficient Learning of Sequences in Structured Recurrent Networks

The paper introduces ELiSe, a model that leverages cortical network scaffolds and dendritic compartments to learn complex non‑Markovian spatio‑temporal patterns using only local, always‑on, phase‑free synaptic plasticity. It demonstrates the model’s ability to acquire and replay intricate sequences, exemplified by a birdsong learning mock‑up, and shows robustness to external disturbances and flexibility in parameter settings.

By Laura Kriener, Kristin V\"olk, Ben von H\"unerbein, Federico Benitez, Walter Senn, Mihai A. Petrovici