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Neuromorphic Sensors, Head Direction

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Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience

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Definition

A neuromorphic VLSI head-direction system is a physical circuit (VLSI) model of the head-direction cell system found in the mammalian brain used to maintain and update a compass-like estimate of the animal’s orientation in the environment. Currently, the physical circuit implementations are constructed in mixed-mode (analog and asynchronous digital) VLSI circuits that model spiking neural networks.

Detailed Description

A head-direction cell (described in mammals) is a type of neuron that has been found to become active when an animal is oriented in a particular direction with respect to the environment (Taube et al. 1990a; Sharp et al. 2001). With different neurons responding to different directions, the head-direction cell systemis thought to reflect the animal’s estimate of its orientation in the environment with respect to some reference orientation. While individual neurons maintain their orientation preference to each other in different environments, the system’s...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    T. K. Horiuchi

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    T. M. Massoud

Authors
  1. T. K. Horiuchi
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  2. T. M. Massoud
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to T. K. Horiuchi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Dieter Jaeger

  2. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA

    Ranu Jung

Section Editor information

  1. National Research Council, Institute of Biophysics, Palermo, Italy

    Michele Migliore

  2. Computational Physiology Lab, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Christiane Linster

  3. Department of Biology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Francesco Cavarretta

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Horiuchi, T.K., Massoud, T.M. (2022). Neuromorphic Sensors, Head Direction. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1006-0_117

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