# NSPDI-SNN: An efficient lightweight SNN based on nonlinear synaptic pruning and dendritic integration

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.21566 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.21566/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 20 of its 59 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 29 Aug 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 20 of 20)

- [Spatio-Temporal Backpropagation for Training High-performance Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02609/) (2017)
- [Incorporating Learnable Membrane Time Constant to Enhance Learning of Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.05785/) (2020)
- [Deep Learning in Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.08150/) (2018)
- [Direct Training for Spiking Neural Networks: Faster, Larger, Better](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.05793/) (2018)
- [Spiking-YOLO: Spiking Neural Network for Energy-Efficient Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.06530/) (2019)
- [The Heidelberg spiking datasets for the systematic evaluation of spiking neural networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.07407/) (2019)
- [STDP Based Pruning of Connections and Weight Quantization in Spiking Neural Networks for Energy Efficient Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.04734/) (2017)
- [Comprehensive SNN Compression Using ADMM Optimization and Activity Regularization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.00822/) (2019)
- [Pruning of Deep Spiking Neural Networks through Gradient Rewiring](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.04916/) (2021)
- [Masked Spiking Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.01208/) (2022)
- [ESL-SNNs: An Evolutionary Structure Learning Strategy for Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03693/) (2023)
- [QuadraLib: A Performant Quadratic Neural Network Library for Architecture Optimization and Design Exploration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.01701/) (2022)
- [Biologically Inspired Dynamic Thresholds for Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.04426/) (2022)
- [Dendrite Net: A White-Box Module for Classification, Regression, and System Identification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.03955/) (2020)
- [Towards Efficient Deep Spiking Neural Networks Construction with Spiking Activity based Pruning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.01072/) (2024)
- [A Synapse-Threshold Synergistic Learning Approach for Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.06129/) (2022)
- [Connection Pruning for Deep Spiking Neural Networks with On-Chip Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.04351/) (2020)
- [Cyclical Pruning for Sparse Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.01290/) (2022)
- [Resource Constrained Model Compression via Minimax Optimization for Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04672/) (2023)
- [Layer-wise synapse optimization for implementing neural networks on general neuromorphic architectures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.06920/) (2018)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Spiking neural networks (SNNs) are artificial neural networks based on simulated biological neurons and have attracted much attention in recent artificial intelligence technology studies. The dendrites in biological neurons have efficient information processing ability and computational power; however, the neurons of SNNs rarely match the complex structure of the dendrites. Inspired by the nonlinear structure and highly sparse properties of neuronal dendrites, in this study, we propose an efficient, lightweight SNN method with nonlinear pruning and dendritic integration (NSPDI-SNN). In this method, we introduce nonlinear dendritic integration (NDI) to improve the representation of the spatiotemporal information of neurons. We implement heterogeneous state transition ratios of dendritic spines and construct a new and flexible nonlinear synaptic pruning (NSP) method to achieve the high sparsity of SNN. We conducted systematic experiments on three benchmark datasets (DVS128 Gesture, CIFAR10-DVS, and CIFAR10) and extended the evaluation to two complex tasks (speech recognition and reinforcement learning-based maze navigation task). Across all tasks, NSPDI-SNN consistently achieved high sparsity with minimal performance degradation. In particular, our method achieved the best experimental results on all three event stream datasets. Further analysis showed that NSPDI significantly improved the efficiency of synaptic information transfer as sparsity increased. In conclusion, our results indicate that the complex structure and nonlinear computation of neuronal dendrites provide a promising approach for developing efficient SNN methods.