A neuromorphic head direction cell system

The head direction (HD) cell system in the brain of mammals is thought to be part of the neural circuitry supporting their spatial navigation capabilities. In this paper we present a neuromorphic VLSI system that mimics the operation of the HD system. Relying on spiking neurons and attractor dynamics, this system can be used to represent and retain the current estimate of head orientation in the environment and integrate angular velocity to update this estimate. The presented system is a first step towards more general odometry systems that could be used for modeling biological navigation systems.

[1]  Richard Hans Robert Hahnloser,et al.  correction: Digital selection and analogue amplification coexist in a cortex-inspired silicon circuit , 2000, Nature.

[2]  Kwabena Boahen,et al.  Point-to-point connectivity between neuromorphic chips using address events , 2000 .

[3]  Kwabena Boahen,et al.  Silicon Neurons that Inhibit to Synchronize , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems.

[4]  R. H. R. Hahnloser,et al.  Emergence of neural integration in the head-direction system by visual supervision , 2003, Neuroscience.

[5]  Giacomo Indiveri,et al.  An event-based VLSI network of integrate-and-fire neurons , 2004, 2004 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37512).

[6]  Giacomo Indiveri,et al.  A VLSI array of low-power spiking neurons and bistable synapses with spike-timing dependent plasticity , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks.

[7]  Bruce L. McNaughton,et al.  Path integration and the neural basis of the 'cognitive map' , 2006, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[8]  R U Muller,et al.  Head-direction cells recorded from the postsubiculum in freely moving rats. I. Description and quantitative analysis , 1990, The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience.

[9]  H. T. Blair,et al.  The anatomical and computational basis of the rat head-direction cell signal , 2001, Trends in Neurosciences.

[10]  J. Bassett,et al.  Persistent neural activity in head direction cells. , 2003, Cerebral cortex.

[11]  Bruce L. McNaughton,et al.  A Model of the Neural Basis of the Rat's Sense of Direction , 1994, NIPS.