A Practical Guide to Tuning Spiking Neuronal Dynamics

In this work, we examine fundamental elements of spiking neural networks (SNNs) as well as how to tune them. Concretely, we focus on two different foundational neuronal units utilized in SNNs – the leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) and the resonate-and-fire (RAF) neuron. We explore key equations and how hyperparameter values affect behavior. Beyond hyperparameters, we discuss other important design elements of SNNs – the choice of input encoding and the setup for excitatory-inhibitory populations – and how these impact LIF and RAF dynamics.