An Electronic Circuit Piecewise‐Constant Neuron Model for Virtual Clinical Experiment on Neural Prosthesis: Cellular Differentiation and Hardware Implementation

Abstract This paper presents a novel piecewise constant (PWC) neuron model, which consists of an analog PWC somatic model and an analog–digital hybrid synaptic unit. It is shown that the PWC neuron model can exhibit various neuron‐like behaviors such as tonic spiking and bursting depending on its parameter values. Then, a novel cellular differentiation method (i.e., parameter search method) for the PWC neuron model is represented. It is shown that the differentiation method can find parameter values suitable to reproduce behaviors of a biologically plausible complicated mathematical neuron model. Furthermore, the PWC neuron model is applied to a virtual experimental trial of neural prosthesis and results show that replacement of a dysfunctional neuron model in a biologically plausible neuron network model by the PWC neuron model can recover the functionality of the network. Finally, potential applications of the PWC neuron model in future brain prosthetic devices are discussed. © 2026 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan and Wiley Periodicals LLC.