Digital Multiplierless Realization of a Calcium-Based Plasticity Model

Calcium is a highly widespread and versatile intracellular ion that can control a wide range of temporal dynamics in the brain such as synaptic plasticity. This brief presents a novel and efficient digital circuit for implementing a calcium-based plasticity model aimed at reproducing relevant biological dynamics. Accordingly, we investigate the feasibility of the proposed model in a minimal neural network stressing on the effect of calcium oscillations on synaptic plasticity with various neuronal stimulation protocols. MATLAB simulations and physical implementations on field-programmable gate array confirm that the proposed model, with considerably low hardware overhead, can fairly mimic the relevant biological dynamics.