McCulloch Pitts Neuron Model

McCulloch Pitts Neuron Model (1943)

• Artificial Neural Network essentially tries to mimic a real biological neural network
and so without surprise the first ever primitive model was conceptualized by
Warren Sturgis McCulloch and Walter Harry Pitts in 1943 who came from
Neuropsychology and Computational Neuroscience backgrounds.
• Different parts of McCulloch-Pitts Neuron Model:
– Neuron
– Excitatory Input
– Inhibitory Input
– Output
 Neuron
• Neuron is a computational unit which has incoming input signals.
• The input signals are computed and an output is fired.
• The neuron further consists of following two elements:
– Summation Function : This simply calculates the sum of incoming inputs(excitatory).
– Activation Function: activation function in this case is the step function which sees if the
summation is more than equal to a preset Threshold value , if yes then neuron should
fire (i.e. output =1 ) if not the neuron should not fire (i.e. output =0).
• Neuron fires: Output =1 , if Summation >= Threshold
• Neuron does not fires: Output =0 , if Summation < Threshold
 Excitatory Input
• This is an incoming binary signals to neuron,
which can have only two values 0 or 1. the
value of 0 indicates that the input is off,
whereas the value of 1 indicates that the input
is on.
 Inhibitory Input
• This is another type of input signal to neuron.
If this input is on, this will not allow neuron to
fire , even if there are other excitatory inputs
which are on.
 Output
• This is simply the output of the neuron which
again can take only binary values of 0 or 1. The
value of 0 indicates that the neuron does not
fire, the value of 1 indicates the neuron does
fire.
How McCulloch-Pitts Neuron Model works
• The input signals are switched on and the neuron is activated.
• If Neuron detects that Inhibitory input is switched on, the
output is straightaway zero, which means the neuron does
not fire.
• If there is no Inhibitory input, then neuron proceeds to
calculate the sum of number of excitatory inputs that are
switched on.
• If this sum is greater than equal to the threshold value, the
neuron fires (output=1) , otherwise the neuron does not fire
(output=0)
Designing McCulloch-Pitts neuron model
• McCulloch-Pitts neuron model can be used to compute some simple
functions which involves binary input and output.
• AND Function
• In AND function, for the neuron to fire all the 2 excitatory nput signals
have to be enabled.
• So it is very intuitive that the threshold value should be 2 here.
• Additionally if the inhibitory input is on, then irrespective of any other
input, the neuron will not fire.
• We can summarize the behavior of neuron for AND function in the below
table.
 OR Function
• In OR function, for the neuron to fire at least one excitatory input signals
has to be enabled.
• So it is very intuitive that the threshold value should be 1 here.
• Again if the inhibitory input is on, then irrespective of any other input, the
neuron will not fire.
• We can summarize the behavior of neuron for OR function in the below
table.
 Real Life Example
• To give you a more better feel of what is going on over here let us create a hypothetical
situation where our McCulloch-Pitts neuron model will take a decision for us.
• So you like going to for a particular movie if is is a new release. But you are also cautious
about price of movie tickets. You watch a movie if the ticket price is cheap.
• Further you cant plan movie on your weekdays as they are busy as hell.
• Neuron design:
– Our neuron will consist of two excitatory inputs –
• X1- IsMovieNew
• X2- IsTicketCheap

• Now as per given problem, you will go to particular movie only if when both IsMovieNew
and IsTicketCheap inputs of the neuron are on.
• As you can guess, this is essentially a AND function problem and the Threshold value will
be 2.
• But wait a minute, if its weekday you cant even think of planning for a movie outing. So
we will also have a Inhibitory input –
– I– IsWeekday
• When IsWeekday is on for the neuron, then there is no question of planning for the
movie.
• And finally we have output of the neuron. Output =1 means you should plan to go for a
particular movie, Output = 0 means you should not plan.
Behavior of the neuron
 Some points to consider
• McCulloch-Pitts neuron model can only deal with binary inputs and binary
output.
• Since it deals with only binary values McCulloch-Pitts neuron can’t work
with real life values like years, price, age etc.
• This model considers that all inputs are equal. But in real life world it might
not be the case. In our above example, for you – the price of the movie
might play little role in deciding the plan and new movie play more value
for making plan. But we can’t assign such weights to inputs of McCulloch-
Pitts neuron.
• Using this approach we can create neuron models for only those problems
that are linearly separable.
• As you could intuitively see McCulloch-Pitts neuron can be used to
represents logical functions. But then it cannot represen XOR logical
function it is not linearly separable.
• And finally we are just calculating the threshold value ourself, which is the
only parameter of the model.
 No (Machine) Learning in McCulloch-Pitts
Neuron Model
• Well, may be you had guessed it by now that there is no learning involved
in McCulloch-Pitts neuron model.
• Based on the scenario and set of possible inputs involved we are
calculating the threshold value and building the model.
• There is no learning taking place which is not how a machine learning
model should look like.
• McCulloch-Pitts neuron model is of historic importance for being the
inspiration of what became Neural Network later years.
 Program
• Write a program to implement AND function
using McCulloch-Pitts Neuron.
• Write a program to implement OR function
using McCulloch-Pitts Neuron.
Thanks