Collaborative Research: MEMONET: Understanding memory in neuronal networks through a brain-inspired spin-based artificial intelligence

大脑可以说是宇宙中最复杂、最高效的计算机器。例如，人脑由大约1000亿个神经元组成，这些神经元形成了一个相互连接的电路，连接数量远远超过100万亿。了解大脑的多种功能是如何从潜在的神经元回路中产生的，这将使人们对大脑的工作原理有更深入的了解。在这个奖项中，一个由系统生物学家、计算生物学家、材料科学家、神经科学家和机器学习专家组成的多学科团队将协同工作，利用神经科学中的数据革命来回答一个基本问题：大脑如何学习、存储和处理信息？该团队将开发和应用先进的数据分析算法，以利用最新的成像和分子图谱技术产生的大量神经元数据，以阐明驱动大脑功能的神经元电路。对自旋电子(自旋电子)装置的计算机模拟将进一步作为验证和模拟这种神经元电路的重要操作特征的平台。该奖项为一个跨学科的数据科学研究和教育项目奠定了基础，该项目将为研究大脑功能以及设计用于信息处理、数据存储、计算和决策的变革性大脑启发设备带来新的强大范例。该项目特别关注大脑的一项基本功能：运动技能学习。这一功能来自控制分子信号传递和神经元放电活动的神经元的基本电路。重要的是，哺乳动物大脑中的神经元电路是高度可塑性和动态的，这一特点使动物能够通过学习对无数外部刺激做出反应。通过利用神经元成像、单神经元分子图谱、自旋电子器件模拟、网络推理和机器学习方面的最新数据革命，一个由多学科研究人员组成的团队将得到该奖项的支持，以研究驱动大脑-S学习功能的神经元电路重新布线的基本原理。更具体地说，该小组着手实现以下具体任务：(A)通过开发新颖和强大的网络推理算法，从双光子钙成像数据推断学习诱导的大规模神经元网络的重新连接；(B)通过将分子图谱与神经元激发和连接组动力学相结合，建立基于生物化学的神经元电路模型；以及(C)通过利用自旋电子材料的自旋动力学，开发模拟学习和记忆形成的自旋电子材料网络模型。该项目旨在为创建一个跨学科的数据密集型脑到材料倡议奠定基础，该倡议将被应用于理解和模拟作为学习、认知、记忆形成和其他行为基础的脑神经元回路的工作原理。该倡议的成果将对社会产生至关重要的影响，不仅在我们对大脑及其功能的理解方面，而且在克服现有计算架构目前的瓶颈方面。该项目是国家科学基金会利用数据革命(HDR)大创意活动的一部分。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The brain is arguably the most sophisticated and the most efficient computational machine in the universe. The human brain, for example, comprises about 100 billion neurons that form an interconnected circuit with well over 100 trillion connections. Understanding how a multitude of brain functions emerge from the underlying neuronal circuit will give insights into the operating principles of the brain. In this award, a multidisciplinary team of systems biologist, computational biologist, material scientist, neuroscientist, and machine learning expert will work synergistically to leverage the data revolution in neuroscience to answer a fundamental question: How does the brain learn, store, and process information? The team will develop and apply advanced data analysis algorithms to harness the great volume of neuronal data generated by the latest imaging and molecular profiling technologies, for elucidating the neuronal circuits driving brain functions. Computer simulations of a spin-electronic (spintronic) device will further serve as a platform to validate and emulate important operational characteristics of such neuronal circuits. The award sets the groundwork for an interdisciplinary data science research and educational program that will bring a new and powerful paradigm for studying brain functions as well as for designing transformative brain-inspired devices for information processing, data storage, computing, and decision making.The project has a specific focus on an essential function of the brain: motor-skill learning. This function emerges from the underlying circuitry of neurons that governs the activities of molecular signal transmission and neuronal firing. Importantly, the neuronal circuit in a mammalian brain is highly plastic and dynamic, features that endow animals with the ability to respond to myriad external stimulations through learning. By harnessing the latest data revolution in neuronal imaging, single neuron molecular profiling, spintronic device simulation, network inference, and machine learning, a team of multidisciplinary investigators will be supported by this award to investigate the fundamental principle of neuronal circuit rewiring that drives brain?s learning function. More specifically, the team sets out to achieve the following specific tasks: (A) Infer learning-induced rewiring of large-scale neuronal networks from two-photon calcium imaging data through the development of novel and powerful network inference algorithms; (B) Build biochemical-based models of neuronal circuits by integrating molecular profiling with neuron firing and connectome dynamics; and (C) Develop a spintronic material network model that emulates learning and memory formation by exploiting the spin dynamics in spintronic materials. The project seeks to lay the foundation for the creation of an interdisciplinary data-intensive brain-to-materials initiative that will be applied to understand and emulate the operational principles of brain neuronal circuits underlying learning, cognition, memory formation, and other behaviors. The outcomes of the initiative will have a paramount impact on the society, not only in our understanding of the brain and its functions, but also in overcoming current bottlenecks of existing computing architectures. This project is part of the National Science Foundation's Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR) Big Idea activity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.