# Spiking neural networks trained via proxy

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.13208 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.13208/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 32 of its 52 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 27 Sep 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 32)

- [Fashion-MNIST: a Novel Image Dataset for Benchmarking Machine Learning Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.07747/) (2017)
- [Surrogate Gradient Learning in Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.09948/) (2019)
- [Incorporating Learnable Membrane Time Constant to Enhance Learning of Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.05785/) (2020)
- [Going Deeper With Directly-Trained Larger Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.05280/) (2020)
- [SLAYER: Spike Layer Error Reassignment in Time](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.08646/) (2018)
- [Deep Learning in Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.08150/) (2018)
- [Going Deeper in Spiking Neural Networks: VGG and Residual Architectures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.02627/) (2018)
- [Direct Training for Spiking Neural Networks: Faster, Larger, Better](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.05793/) (2018)
- [The Computational Limits of Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.05558/) (2020)
- [Long short-term memory and learning-to-learn in networks of spiking neurons](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.09574/) (2018)
- [Enabling Deep Spiking Neural Networks with Hybrid Conversion and Spike Timing Dependent Backpropagation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.01807/) (2020)
- [Optimal Conversion of Conventional Artificial Neural Networks to Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00476/) (2021)
- [Enabling Spike-based Backpropagation for Training Deep Neural Network Architectures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.06379/) (2019)
- [Temporal Spike Sequence Learning via Backpropagation for Deep Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.10085/) (2020)
- [Optimal ANN-SNN Conversion for Fast and Accurate Inference in Deep Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.11654/) (2021)
- [Supervised learning based on temporal coding in spiking neural networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.08165/) (2016)
- [DIET-SNN: Direct Input Encoding With Leakage and Threshold Optimization in Deep Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.03658/) (2020)
- [Convolutional Networks for Fast, Energy-Efficient Neuromorphic Computing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1603.08270/) (2016)
- [Event-Based Backpropagation can compute Exact Gradients for Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.08378/) (2020)
- [S4NN: temporal backpropagation for spiking neural networks with one spike per neuron](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.09495/) (2019)
- [Gradient Descent for Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.04698/) (2017)
- [Progressive Tandem Learning for Pattern Recognition with Deep Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.01204/) (2020)
- [BS4NN: Binarized Spiking Neural Networks with Temporal Coding and Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.04039/) (2020)
- [BP-STDP: Approximating Backpropagation using Spike Timing Dependent Plasticity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.04214/) (2017)
- [First-spike based visual categorization using reward-modulated STDP](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.09132/) (2017)
- [Low-activity supervised convolutional spiking neural networks applied to speech commands recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.06846/) (2020)
- [Constructing Accurate and Efficient Deep Spiking Neural Networks with Double-threshold and Augmented Schemes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.03231/) (2020)
- [Technical report: supervised training of convolutional spiking neural networks with PyTorch](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.10124/) (2019)
- [Spike time displacement based error backpropagation in convolutional spiking neural networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.13621/) (2021)
- [A Supervised Learning Algorithm for Multilayer Spiking Neural Networks Based on Temporal Coding Toward Energy-Efficient VLSI Processor Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.05348/) (2020)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [SpikingJelly: An open-source machine learning infrastructure platform for spike-based intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.16620/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We propose a new learning algorithm to train spiking neural networks (SNN) using conventional artificial neural networks (ANN) as proxy. We couple two SNN and ANN networks, respectively, made of integrate-and-fire (IF) and ReLU neurons with the same network architectures and shared synaptic weights. The forward passes of the two networks are totally independent. By assuming IF neuron with rate-coding as an approximation of ReLU, we backpropagate the error of the SNN in the proxy ANN to update the shared weights, simply by replacing the ANN final output with that of the SNN. We applied the proposed proxy learning to deep convolutional SNNs and evaluated it on two benchmarked datasets of Fashion-MNIST and Cifar10 with 94.56% and 93.11% classification accuracy, respectively. The proposed networks could outperform other deep SNNs trained with tandem learning, surrogate gradient learning, or converted from deep ANNs. Converted SNNs require long simulation times to reach reasonable accuracies while our proxy learning leads to efficient SNNs with much smaller simulation times. The source codes of the proposed method are publicly available at https://github.com/SRKH/ProxyLearning.