Electronic circuit implementation of the chaotic Rulkov neuron model

Numerical integration is the most common and straightforward approach in computational neuroscience for the study of biological neuron models based on ordinary differential equations. For some purposes, numerical simulations are not enough due to the multiple bottlenecks in computer architectures. However, when electronic circuits are used to simulate in real time large arrays of coupled neurons, the simulations are much faster than the computer simulations. We present here an electronic implementation of a map-based neuron model, a chaotic Rulkov neuron model, that can be easily transferred on a large scale integration circuit and thus provide a framework for the simulation of large networks of neurons. The Rulkov model is a map-based neuron model that has a surprising abundance of features, such as periodic and chaotic spiking and bursting. The discrete time dynamics allows to tune the time scale of the circuit to the needs of the specific application. Since the circuit described here only uses 18 MOS transistors, it offers new perspectives for building large networks of neurons in a single device. This is very relevant for the analysis of large networks of coupled neurons in order to investigate its dynamics over the network and its synchronization properties.