Synaptic weight

Abstract: How different is local cortical circuitry from a random network? To answer this question, we probed synaptic connections with several hundred simultaneous quadruple whole-cell recordings from layer 5 pyramidal neurons in the rat visual cortex. Analysis of this dataset revealed several nonrandom features in synaptic connectivity. We confirmed previous reports that bidirectional connections are more common than expected in a random network. We found that several highly clustered three-neuron connectivity patterns are overrepresented, suggesting that connections tend to cluster together. We also analyzed synaptic connection strength as defined by the peak excitatory postsynaptic potential amplitude. We found that the distribution of synaptic connection strength differs significantly from the Poisson distribution and can be fitted by a lognormal distribution. Such a distribution has a heavier tail and implies that synaptic weight is concentrated among few synaptic connections. In addition, the strengths of synaptic connections sharing pre- or postsynaptic neurons are correlated, implying that strong connections are even more clustered than the weak ones. Therefore, the local cortical network structure can be viewed as a skeleton of stronger connections in a sea of weaker ones. Such a skeleton is likely to play an important role in network dynamics and should be investigated further.

Abstract: In a previous paper, a model was presented showing how the group of Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II molecules contained within a postsynaptic density could stably store a graded synaptic weight. This paper completes the model by showing how bidirectional control of synaptic weight could be achieved. It is proposed that the quantitative level of the activity-dependent rise in postsynaptic Ca2+ determines whether the synaptic weight will increase or decrease. It is further proposed that reduction of synaptic weight is governed by protein phosphatase 1, an enzyme indirectly controlled by Ca2+ through reactions involving phosphatase inhibitor 1, cAMP-dependent protein kinase, calcineurin, and adenylate cyclase. Modeling of this biochemical system shows that it can function as an analog computer that can store a synaptic weight and modify it in accord with the Hebb and anti-Hebb learning rules.

Abstract: Neuromorphic computers comprised of artificial neurons and synapses could provide a more efficient approach to implementing neural network algorithms than traditional hardware. Recently, artificial neurons based on memristors have been developed, but with limited bio-realistic dynamics and no direct interaction with the artificial synapses in an integrated network. Here we show that a diffusive memristor based on silver nanoparticles in a dielectric film can be used to create an artificial neuron with stochastic leaky integrate-and-fire dynamics and tunable integration time, which is determined by silver migration alone or its interaction with circuit capacitance. We integrate these neurons with nonvolatile memristive synapses to build fully memristive artificial neural networks. With these integrated networks, we experimentally demonstrate unsupervised synaptic weight updating and pattern classification.

Abstract: Using two phase-change memory devices per synapse, a three-layer perceptron network with 164 885 synapses is trained on a subset (5000 examples) of the MNIST database of handwritten digits using a backpropagation variant suitable for nonvolatile memory (NVM) + selector crossbar arrays, obtaining a training (generalization) accuracy of 82.2% (82.9%). Using a neural network simulator matched to the experimental demonstrator, extensive tolerancing is performed with respect to NVM variability, yield, and the stochasticity, linearity, and asymmetry of the NVM-conductance response. We show that a bidirectional NVM with a symmetric, linear conductance response of high dynamic range is capable of delivering the same high classification accuracies on this problem as a conventional, software-based implementation of this same network.