Si elegans - Computational Modelling of C. elegans Nematode Nervous System using FPGAs

Pedro Machado, John Wade, T. M. Mcginnity

2014

Abstract

It has long been the goal of computational neuroscientists to understand and harness the parallel computational power of the mammalian nervous system. However, the vast complexity of such a nervous system has made it very difficult to fully understand even the most basic of functions such as movement and learning and accordingly there has been increasing attention paid to the development of emulations of simpler systems. One such system is the C. elegans nematode, which has been widely studied in recent years and there now exists a vast wealth of biological knowledge about its nervous structure, function and connectivity. The Si elegans EU FP7 project aims to develop a Hardware Neural Network (HNN) to accurately replicate the C. elegans nervous system behaviour to enable neuroscientists to better understand these basic functions. To fully replicate the C. elegans biological system requires powerful computing technologies, based on parallel processing, for real-time computation and therefore will use Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to achieve this. In this paper an overview of the complete hardware system required to fully realise Si elegans is presented along with an early small scale implementation of the hardware system.

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Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Machado P., Wade J. and M. Mcginnity T. (2014). Si elegans - Computational Modelling of C. elegans Nematode Nervous System using FPGAs . In Proceedings of the 2nd International Congress on Neurotechnology, Electronics and Informatics - Volume 1: NeBICA, (NEUROTECHNIX 2014) ISBN 978-989-758-056-7, pages 169-176. DOI: 10.5220/0005169301690176


in Bibtex Style

@conference{nebica14,
author={Pedro Machado and John Wade and T. M. Mcginnity},
title={Si elegans - Computational Modelling of C. elegans Nematode Nervous System using FPGAs},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 2nd International Congress on Neurotechnology, Electronics and Informatics - Volume 1: NeBICA, (NEUROTECHNIX 2014)},
year={2014},
pages={169-176},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0005169301690176},
isbn={978-989-758-056-7},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 2nd International Congress on Neurotechnology, Electronics and Informatics - Volume 1: NeBICA, (NEUROTECHNIX 2014)
TI - Si elegans - Computational Modelling of C. elegans Nematode Nervous System using FPGAs
SN - 978-989-758-056-7
AU - Machado P.
AU - Wade J.
AU - M. Mcginnity T.
PY - 2014
SP - 169
EP - 176
DO - 10.5220/0005169301690176