Si elegans - Computational Modelling of C. elegans Nematode Nervous System using FPGAs

Abstract

It has long been the goal of computational neuroscientists to understand and harness the parallelcomputational power of the mammalian nervous system. However, the vast complexity of such a nervoussystem has made it very difficult to fully understand even the most basic of functions such as movement andlearning and accordingly there has been increasing attention paid to the development of emulations ofsimpler systems. One such system is the C. elegans nematode, which has been widely studied in recentyears and there now exists a vast wealth of biological knowledge about its nervous structure, function andconnectivity. The Si elegans EU FP7 project aims to develop a Hardware Neural Network (HNN) toaccurately replicate the C. elegans nervous system behaviour to enable neuroscientists to better understandthese basic functions. To fully replicate the C. elegans biological system requires powerful computingtechnologies, based on parallel processing, for real-time computation and therefore will use FieldProgrammable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to achieve this. In this paper an overview of the complete hardwaresystem required to fully realise Si elegans is presented along with an early small scale implementation of thehardware system.