Adaptive Olfactory Encoding in Agents Controlled by Spiking Neural Networks

We created a neural architecture that can use two different types of information encoding strategies depending on the environment. The goal of this research was to create a simulated agent that could react to two different overlapping chemicals having varying concentrations. The neural network controls the agent by encoding its sensory information as temporal coincidences in a low concentration environment, and as firing rates at high concentration. With such an architecture, we could study synchronization of firing in a simple manner and see its effect on the agent’s behaviour.