An Electronic Neuron with Input-Specific Spiking

Sensory information in the brain is encoded by intricate spiking patterns. Transient characteristics of individual action potentials may be used in neural encoding. Inspired by behaviors found in biological neurons, we have designed a neuromorphic circuit of a neuron that exhibits input-specific spiking. Our neuron circuit has multiple dendrites and uses properties of localized high-voltage-activated (HVA) Ca2+ channels to generate action potentials with distinct shapes depending on the location of stimulation received at input synapses. Through circuit simulations, we show that our neuron circuit can encode differences in spatial locations of input stimuli through precise characteristics of output spikes, and spike shapes are tunable. We then show that neuron circuits, in conjunction with astrocytes, can be used to replace damaged neurons processing sensory inputs with healthy neurons augmented to process their own sensory inputs as well as the inputs originally intended for the damaged neurons, using spiking shapes to signal input sources.