Synchronization Properties of Pulse-Coupled Resonate-and-Fire Neuron Circuits and Their Application

Introduction: Recent advances in neuroscience suggest that spiking neurons in cortical area are classified into two categories: integrators and resonators [1]. These neurons are different in the sensitivity to the timing of stimulus, and therefore show different synchronization properties in pulse-coupled systems. It is interested that the distribution of such neurons are layer-specific and depends on whether excitatory or inhibitory from a point of view of information processing in the cortical area. Functional networks of silicon spiking neurons have been progressing in the field of neuromorphic engineering, most of which are constructed from electronic analogues of integrators, such as the integrate-and-fire neuron (IFN) circuit. In spite of possible contributions, it has been rarely considered to implement an analog integrated circuit for resonators into the silicon spiking neural networks. In this paper, we will first describe an analog integrated circuit for a resonate-and-fire neuron (RFN) model, which is the simplest resonator proposed by Izhikevich [1]. We will then describe curious synchronization phenomena in two pulse-coupled RFN circuits. We will further describe synchronization properties of a system of globally coupled RFN circuits with inhibitory coupling and its application for neuromorphic noise shaping. We will finally discuss about complementary roles of the RFN circuits in the IFN circuits in very large-scale integration (VLSI) of the silicon spiking neural networks.