Finding iterative roots with a spiking neural network

In recent years, both multilayer perceptrons and networks of spiking neurons have been used in applications ranging from detailed models of specific cortical areas to image processing. A more challenging application is to find solutions to functional equations in order to gain insights to underlying phenomena. Finding the roots of real valued monotonically increasing function mappings is the solution to a particular class of functional equation. Furthermore, spiking neural network approaches in solving problems described by functional equations, may be an useful tool to provide important insights to how different regions of the brain may co-ordinate signaling within and between modalities, thus providing a possible basis to construct a theory of brain function. In this letter, we present for the first time a spiking neural network architecture based on integrate-and-fire units and delays, that is capable of calculating the functional or iterative root of nonlinear functions, by solving a particular class of functional equation.  2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.