The Si elegans connectome: A neuromimetic emulation of neural signal transfer with DMD-structured light

Alexey Petrushin; Lorenzo Ferrara; Axel Blau

doi:10.1117/12.2085032

10 March 2015 The Si elegans connectome: A neuromimetic emulation of neural signal transfer with DMD-structured light

Alexey Petrushin, Lorenzo Ferrara, Axel Blau

Proceedings Volume 9376, Emerging Digital Micromirror Device Based Systems and Applications VII; 93760L (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2085032
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2015, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Our current understanding of brain function is still too limited to take advantage of the computational power of even the simplest biological nervous systems. To fill this gap, the Si elegans project (www.si-elegans.eu) aims at developing a computational framework that will replicate the nervous system and rich behavior of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, a tiny worm with just 302 neurons. One key element of this emulation testbed is an electro-optical, micromirrorbased connectome. Unlike any other current ICT communication protocol, we expect it to accurately mimic the parallel information transfer between neurons. This strategy promises to give new insights into the nature of two hypothesized key mechanisms - the parallel and precisely timed information flow - that make brains excel von-Neumann-type machines. In this contribution, we briefly introduce the overall Si elegans concept to then describe the requirements for designing a light-based connectome within the given boundary conditions imposed by the hardware infrastructure it will be integrated into.

Citation Download Citation

Alexey Petrushin, Lorenzo Ferrara, and Axel Blau "The Si elegans connectome: A neuromimetic emulation of neural signal transfer with DMD-structured light", Proc. SPIE 9376, Emerging Digital Micromirror Device Based Systems and Applications VII, 93760L (10 March 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2085032

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available