A neural-network framework for modelling auditory sensory cells and synapses

In classical computational neuroscience, transfer functions are derived from neuronal recordings to derive analytical model descriptions of neuronal processes. This approach has resulted in a variety of Hodgkin-Huxley-type neuronal models, or multi-compartment synapse models, that accurately mimic neuronal recordings and have transformed the neuroscience field. However, these analytical models are typically slow to compute due to their inclusion of dynamic and nonlinear properties of the underlying biological system. This drawback limits the extent to which these models can be integrated within large-scale neuronal simulation frameworks and hinders an uptake by the neuro-engineering field which requires fast and efficient model descriptions. To bridge this translational gap, we present a hybrid, machine-learning and computational-neuroscience approach that transforms analytical sensory neuron and synapse models into artificial-neural-network (ANN) neuronal units with the same biophysical properties. Our ANN-model architecture comprises parallel and differentiable equations that can be used for backpropagation in neuro-engineering applications, and offers a simulation run-time improvement factor of 70 and 280 on CPU or GPU systems respectively. We focussed our development on auditory sensory neurons and synapses, and show that our ANN-model architecture generalizes well to a variety of existing analytical models of different complexity. The model training and development approach we present can easily be modified for other neuron and synapse types to accelerate the development of large-scale brain networks and to open up avenues for ANN-based treatments of the pathological system.