Maximizing information in neuron populations for neuromorphic spike encoding
One of the ways neuromorphic applications emulate the processing performed by the brain is by using spikes as inputs instead of time-varying analog stimuli. Therefore, these time-varying stimuli have to be encoded into spikes, which can induce important information loss. To alleviate this loss, some...
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Neuromorphic Computing and Engineering |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4386/ada8d4 |
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| author | Ahmad El Ferdaoussi Eric Plourde Jean Rouat |
| author_facet | Ahmad El Ferdaoussi Eric Plourde Jean Rouat |
| author_sort | Ahmad El Ferdaoussi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | One of the ways neuromorphic applications emulate the processing performed by the brain is by using spikes as inputs instead of time-varying analog stimuli. Therefore, these time-varying stimuli have to be encoded into spikes, which can induce important information loss. To alleviate this loss, some studies use population coding strategies to encode more information using a population of neurons rather than just one neuron. However, configuring the encoding parameters of such a population is an open research question. This work proposes an approach based on maximizing the mutual information between the signal and the spikes in the population of neurons. The proposed algorithm is inspired by the information-theoretic framework of Partial Information Decomposition. Two applications are presented: blood pressure pulse wave classification, and neural action potential waveform classification. In both tasks, the data is encoded into spikes and the encoding parameters of the neuron populations are tuned to maximize the encoded information using the proposed algorithm. The spikes are then classified and the performance is measured using classification accuracy as a metric. Two key results are reported. First, adding neurons to the population leads to an increase in both mutual information and classification accuracy beyond what could be accounted for by each neuron separately, showing the usefulness of population coding strategies. Second, the classification accuracy obtained with the tuned parameters is near-optimal and it closely follows the mutual information as more neurons are added to the population. Furthermore, the proposed approach significantly outperforms random parameter selection, showing the usefulness of the proposed approach. These results are reproduced in both applications. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-6629511932e24df48052160c78348acc |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2634-4386 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Neuromorphic Computing and Engineering |
| spelling | doaj-art-6629511932e24df48052160c78348acc2025-01-21T13:21:57ZengIOP PublishingNeuromorphic Computing and Engineering2634-43862025-01-015101400210.1088/2634-4386/ada8d4Maximizing information in neuron populations for neuromorphic spike encodingAhmad El Ferdaoussi0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9563-1467Eric Plourde1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7492-2620Jean Rouat2NECOTIS, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Université de Sherbrooke , Sherbrooke, QC J1K 2R1, CanadaNECOTIS, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Université de Sherbrooke , Sherbrooke, QC J1K 2R1, CanadaNECOTIS, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Université de Sherbrooke , Sherbrooke, QC J1K 2R1, CanadaOne of the ways neuromorphic applications emulate the processing performed by the brain is by using spikes as inputs instead of time-varying analog stimuli. Therefore, these time-varying stimuli have to be encoded into spikes, which can induce important information loss. To alleviate this loss, some studies use population coding strategies to encode more information using a population of neurons rather than just one neuron. However, configuring the encoding parameters of such a population is an open research question. This work proposes an approach based on maximizing the mutual information between the signal and the spikes in the population of neurons. The proposed algorithm is inspired by the information-theoretic framework of Partial Information Decomposition. Two applications are presented: blood pressure pulse wave classification, and neural action potential waveform classification. In both tasks, the data is encoded into spikes and the encoding parameters of the neuron populations are tuned to maximize the encoded information using the proposed algorithm. The spikes are then classified and the performance is measured using classification accuracy as a metric. Two key results are reported. First, adding neurons to the population leads to an increase in both mutual information and classification accuracy beyond what could be accounted for by each neuron separately, showing the usefulness of population coding strategies. Second, the classification accuracy obtained with the tuned parameters is near-optimal and it closely follows the mutual information as more neurons are added to the population. Furthermore, the proposed approach significantly outperforms random parameter selection, showing the usefulness of the proposed approach. These results are reproduced in both applications.https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4386/ada8d4spike encodingpopulation codemutual informationpartial information decomposition |
| spellingShingle | Ahmad El Ferdaoussi Eric Plourde Jean Rouat Maximizing information in neuron populations for neuromorphic spike encoding Neuromorphic Computing and Engineering spike encoding population code mutual information partial information decomposition |
| title | Maximizing information in neuron populations for neuromorphic spike encoding |
| title_full | Maximizing information in neuron populations for neuromorphic spike encoding |
| title_fullStr | Maximizing information in neuron populations for neuromorphic spike encoding |
| title_full_unstemmed | Maximizing information in neuron populations for neuromorphic spike encoding |
| title_short | Maximizing information in neuron populations for neuromorphic spike encoding |
| title_sort | maximizing information in neuron populations for neuromorphic spike encoding |
| topic | spike encoding population code mutual information partial information decomposition |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4386/ada8d4 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ahmadelferdaoussi maximizinginformationinneuronpopulationsforneuromorphicspikeencoding AT ericplourde maximizinginformationinneuronpopulationsforneuromorphicspikeencoding AT jeanrouat maximizinginformationinneuronpopulationsforneuromorphicspikeencoding |