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We present the design and numerical simulation of a spiking neuron capable of on-chip machine learning. Built within the CMOS+X framework, the spiking neuron consists of an NMOS transistor combined with a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ).…
Neuromorphic systems that densely integrate CMOS spiking neurons and nano-scale memristor synapses open a new avenue of brain-inspired computing. Existing silicon neurons have molded neural biophysical dynamics but are incompatible with…
Limbless locomotors, from microscopic worms to macroscopic snakes, traverse complex, heterogeneous natural environments typically using undulatory body wave propagation. Theoretical and robophysical models typically emphasize body…
Over the past decade Spiking Neural Networks (SNN) have emerged as one of the popular architectures to emulate the brain. In SNN, information is temporally encoded and communication between neurons is accomplished by means of spikes. In…
Animals must integrate sensory cues with their current behavioral context to generate a suitable response. How this integration occurs is poorly understood. Previously we developed high throughput methods to probe neural activity in…
Understanding how information about external stimuli is transformed into behavior is one of the central goals of neuroscience. Here we characterize the information flow through a complete sensorimotor circuit: from stimulus, to sensory…
Despite the relative simplicity of C. elegans, its locomotion machinery is not yet well understood. We focus on the generation of dorsoventral body bends. While central pattern generators are commonly involved in animal locomotion, their…
The ability to acquire large-scale recordings of neuronal activity in awake and unrestrained animals poses a major challenge for studying neural coding of animal behavior. We present a new instrument capable of recording intracellular…
Complex networks can often be decomposed into less complex sub-networks whose structures can give hints about the functional organization of the network as a whole. However, these structural motifs can only tell one part of the functional…
Connectomics has focused primarily on the mapping of synaptic links in the brain; yet it is well established that extrasynaptic volume transmission, especially via monoamines and neuropeptides, is also critical to brain function. Here we…
Probing the developing neural circuitry in Caenorhabditis elegans has enhanced our understanding of nervous systems. The C. elegans connectome, like those of other species, is characterized by a rich club of densely connected neurons…
Recent efforts in neuroscience research seek to obtain detailed anatomical neuronal wiring maps as well as information on how neurons in these networks engage in dynamic activities. Although the entire connectivity map of the nervous system…
Recent developments in photonics include efficient nanoscale optoelectronic components and novel methods for sub-wavelength light manipulation. Here, we explore the potential offered by such devices as a substrate for neuromorphic…
Neuromechanics aims to understand the link between an animal's neural activity and its physical behaviors. Recent advances in experimental and machine learning techniques enable simultaneous recordings of neural and locomotion dynamics over…
The neural dynamics of the nematode C. elegans are experimentally low-dimensional and correspond to discrete behavioral states, where previous modeling work has found neural proxies for some of these states. Experimental results further…
Flying insects are capable of vision-based navigation in cluttered environments, reliably avoiding obstacles through fast and agile maneuvers, while being very efficient in the processing of visual stimuli. Meanwhile, autonomous micro air…
Organisms move through the world by changing their shape, and here we explore the mapping from shape space to movements in the nematode C. elegans as it crawls on a planar agar surface. We characterize the statistics of the trajectories…
Spatially-embedded complex networks, such as nervous systems, the Internet and transportation networks, generally have non-trivial topological patterns of connections combined with nearly minimal wiring costs. However the growth rules…
We develop a biophysically realistic model of the nematode C. elegans that includes: (i) its muscle structure and activation, (ii) key connectomic activation circuitry, and (iii) a weighted and time-dynamic proprioception. In combination,…
Non-Boolean computing based on emerging post-CMOS technologies can potentially pave the way for low-power neural computing platforms. However, existing work on such emerging neuromorphic architectures have either focused on solely mimicking…