Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Fernández, Jesús García, Ahmad, Nasir, van Gerven, Marcel
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.23972
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866917222077693952
author Fernández, Jesús García
Ahmad, Nasir
van Gerven, Marcel
author_facet Fernández, Jesús García
Ahmad, Nasir
van Gerven, Marcel
contents The pursuit of energy-efficient and adaptive artificial intelligence (AI) has positioned neuromorphic computing as a promising alternative to conventional computing. However, achieving learning on these platforms requires techniques that prioritize local information while enabling effective credit assignment. Here, we propose noise-based reward-modulated learning (NRL), a novel synaptic plasticity rule that mathematically unifies reinforcement learning and gradient-based optimization with biologically-inspired local updates. NRL addresses the computational bottleneck of exact gradients by approximating them through stochastic neural activity, transforming the inherent noise of biological and neuromorphic substrates into a functional resource. Drawing inspiration from biological learning, our method uses reward prediction errors as its optimization target to generate increasingly advantageous behavior, and eligibility traces to facilitate retrospective credit assignment. Experimental validation on reinforcement tasks, featuring immediate and delayed rewards, shows that NRL achieves performance comparable to baselines optimized using backpropagation, although with slower convergence, while showing significantly superior performance and scalability in multi-layer networks compared to reward-modulated Hebbian learning (RMHL), the most prominent similar approach. While tested on simple architectures, the results highlight the potential of noise-driven, brain-inspired learning for low-power adaptive systems, particularly in computing substrates with locality constraints. NRL offers a theoretically grounded paradigm well-suited for the event-driven characteristics of next-generation neuromorphic AI.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_23972
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Noise-based reward-modulated learning
Fernández, Jesús García
Ahmad, Nasir
van Gerven, Marcel
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
The pursuit of energy-efficient and adaptive artificial intelligence (AI) has positioned neuromorphic computing as a promising alternative to conventional computing. However, achieving learning on these platforms requires techniques that prioritize local information while enabling effective credit assignment. Here, we propose noise-based reward-modulated learning (NRL), a novel synaptic plasticity rule that mathematically unifies reinforcement learning and gradient-based optimization with biologically-inspired local updates. NRL addresses the computational bottleneck of exact gradients by approximating them through stochastic neural activity, transforming the inherent noise of biological and neuromorphic substrates into a functional resource. Drawing inspiration from biological learning, our method uses reward prediction errors as its optimization target to generate increasingly advantageous behavior, and eligibility traces to facilitate retrospective credit assignment. Experimental validation on reinforcement tasks, featuring immediate and delayed rewards, shows that NRL achieves performance comparable to baselines optimized using backpropagation, although with slower convergence, while showing significantly superior performance and scalability in multi-layer networks compared to reward-modulated Hebbian learning (RMHL), the most prominent similar approach. While tested on simple architectures, the results highlight the potential of noise-driven, brain-inspired learning for low-power adaptive systems, particularly in computing substrates with locality constraints. NRL offers a theoretically grounded paradigm well-suited for the event-driven characteristics of next-generation neuromorphic AI.
title Noise-based reward-modulated learning
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.23972