Building Neuromorphic Embodied Cell Assembly Agents that Learn

Neuromorphic embodied cell assembly agents that learn are one application being developed for the Human Brain Project (HBP). The HBP will build tools, available for all researchers, for building brain simulations. Existing simulated neural agents will be translated to the platforms provided by the HBP; these agents will then run on neuromorphic chips instead of a von Neumann based computer. The initial translation is relatively straight forward but non-trivial software engineering, as any computational system can be programmed from simulated neurons by setting the neural and synaptic topology. By running variants of these agents on different platforms and with the different simulated neural models, implicit assumptions in these models can be revealed. Once these Cell Assembly agents have been translated and embodied in a virtual environment, they will be extended to learn more effectively. These agents will also be able to make use of the neural hardware to simulate in real time many more neurons, providing a platform for exploration of more complex simulated neural systems.