A differentiable brain simulator bridging brain simulation and brain-inspired computing

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Wang, Chaoming, Zhang, Tianqiu, He, Sichao, Gu, Hongyaoxing, Li, Shangyang, Wu, Si
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866917595519647744
author Wang, Chaoming
Zhang, Tianqiu
He, Sichao
Gu, Hongyaoxing
Li, Shangyang
Wu, Si
author_facet Wang, Chaoming
Zhang, Tianqiu
He, Sichao
Gu, Hongyaoxing
Li, Shangyang
Wu, Si
contents Brain simulation builds dynamical models to mimic the structure and functions of the brain, while brain-inspired computing (BIC) develops intelligent systems by learning from the structure and functions of the brain. The two fields are intertwined and should share a common programming framework to facilitate each other's development. However, none of the existing software in the fields can achieve this goal, because traditional brain simulators lack differentiability for training, while existing deep learning (DL) frameworks fail to capture the biophysical realism and complexity of brain dynamics. In this paper, we introduce BrainPy, a differentiable brain simulator developed using JAX and XLA, with the aim of bridging the gap between brain simulation and BIC. BrainPy expands upon the functionalities of JAX, a powerful AI framework, by introducing complete capabilities for flexible, efficient, and scalable brain simulation. It offers a range of sparse and event-driven operators for efficient and scalable brain simulation, an abstraction for managing the intricacies of synaptic computations, a modular and flexible interface for constructing multi-scale brain models, and an object-oriented just-in-time compilation approach to handle the memory-intensive nature of brain dynamics. We showcase the efficiency and scalability of BrainPy on benchmark tasks, highlight its differentiable simulation for biologically plausible spiking models, and discuss its potential to support research at the intersection of brain simulation and BIC.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_05106
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A differentiable brain simulator bridging brain simulation and brain-inspired computing
Wang, Chaoming
Zhang, Tianqiu
He, Sichao
Gu, Hongyaoxing
Li, Shangyang
Wu, Si
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Artificial Intelligence
Neurons and Cognition
Brain simulation builds dynamical models to mimic the structure and functions of the brain, while brain-inspired computing (BIC) develops intelligent systems by learning from the structure and functions of the brain. The two fields are intertwined and should share a common programming framework to facilitate each other's development. However, none of the existing software in the fields can achieve this goal, because traditional brain simulators lack differentiability for training, while existing deep learning (DL) frameworks fail to capture the biophysical realism and complexity of brain dynamics. In this paper, we introduce BrainPy, a differentiable brain simulator developed using JAX and XLA, with the aim of bridging the gap between brain simulation and BIC. BrainPy expands upon the functionalities of JAX, a powerful AI framework, by introducing complete capabilities for flexible, efficient, and scalable brain simulation. It offers a range of sparse and event-driven operators for efficient and scalable brain simulation, an abstraction for managing the intricacies of synaptic computations, a modular and flexible interface for constructing multi-scale brain models, and an object-oriented just-in-time compilation approach to handle the memory-intensive nature of brain dynamics. We showcase the efficiency and scalability of BrainPy on benchmark tasks, highlight its differentiable simulation for biologically plausible spiking models, and discuss its potential to support research at the intersection of brain simulation and BIC.
title A differentiable brain simulator bridging brain simulation and brain-inspired computing
topic Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Artificial Intelligence
Neurons and Cognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.05106