A Gradient-based yet Spike-Timing-Dependent Solution to the Feedback Learning Problem in Neural Microcircuits
The brain uses discrete spikes for dynamic computation, yet, how neural microcircuits (NMCs) solve temporal credit assignment using local spike timing remains a fundamental open question. Dominant spiking neural network (SNN) approaches circumvent this by approximating backpropagation through surrogate gradients, decoupling learning from biological spike timing. Here, we reformulate temporal credit assignment as a state separation problem: extracting task-required components induced by historical perturbations directly from the current neural state. This enables an online feedback learning framework for NMCs through a gradient tunneling (GT) algorithm and the lead-lag expansion technique ...
| Authors | Xiangnan Zhang, Jingxin Liu, Ranqi Lu et al. |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.NE |
| Published | 8 September 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 10 September 2026 |
Silytics shows public metadata from arXiv and links to the original. Information may be incomplete or out of date. Last refreshed 17 October 2026. Licenses and terms of the original apply to the work itself. Not financial, legal or professional advice.