Behavioral Simulation of Biological Neuron Systems in SystemC

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Description/Abstract

The investigation of neuron structures is an incredibly difficult and complex task that yields relatively low rewards in terms of information from biological forms (either animals or tissue). The structures and connectivity of even the simplest invertebrates are almost impossible to establish with standard laboratory techniques. Recent work has shown how a simplified behavioural approach to modeling neurons can allow “virtual” experiments to be carried out that map the behaviour of a simulated structure onto a hypothetical biological one, with correlation of behaviour rather than underlying connectivity. The problems with such approaches are twofold. The first is the difficulty of simulating realistic aggregates efficiently, and the second is making sense of the results. In this paper we describe a method of modeling neuron aggregates using SystemC (a language developed for hardware design), and also a design interface to enable structures and connection maps to be developed, with simulations carried out leading to animated visualization of the results