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
3d ago

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 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 Machine Learning
Jun 11

A2SG:Adaptive and Asymmetric Surrogate Gradients for Training Deep Spiking Neural Networks

arXiv:2606. 11236v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Training deep spiking neural networks (SNNs) remains challenging due to sharp loss landscapes and temporal inconsistency caused by surrogate gradients.

By Yechan Kang, Yongjin Kweon, Mingyeong Seo, Sohee Park, Yeonguk Jeon, Jongkil Park, Hyun Jae Jang, Jaewook Kim, YeonJoo Jeong, Suyoun Lee, Seongsik Park
arXiv AI
Jun 2

Rare Events, Real Signals: Functional Ensembles as Units of Computation in Deep Spiking Networks

arXiv:2606. 00073v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: We investigate how internal representations emerge across hierarchical processing systems by introducing a neuroscience-inspired framework for analyzing deep spiking neural networks (SNN) through the lens of functional connectivity.

By Aditi Aravind, Konstantinos Ladakis, Mario Alexios Savaglio, Stelios M. Smirnakis, Maria Papadopouli