EMBER: Autonomous Cognitive Behaviour from Learned Spiking Neural Network Dynamics in a Hybrid LLM Architecture

Computer Science > Artificial Intelligence [Submitted on 14 Apr 2026] EMBER: Autonomous Cognitive Behaviour from Learned Spiking Neural Network Dynamics in a Hybrid LLM Architecture William Savage We present (Experience-Modulated Biologically-inspired Emergent Reasoning), a hybrid cognitive architecture that reorganises the relationship between large language models (LLMs) and memory: rather than augmenting an LLM with retrieval tools, we place the LLM as a replaceable reasoning engine within a persistent, biologically-grounded associative substrate. The architecture centres on a 220,000-neuron spiking neural network (SNN) with spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP), four-layer hierarchical organisation (sensory/concept/category/meta-pattern), inhibitory E/I balance, and reward-modulated learning. Text embeddings are encoded into the SNN via a novel z-score standardised top-k population code that is dimension-independent by construction, achieving 82.2\% discrimination retention across embedding dimensionalities. We show that STDP lateral propagation during idle operation can trigger and shape LLM actions without external prompting or scripted triggers: the SNN determines when to act and what associations to surface, while the LLM selects the action type and generates content. In one instance, the system autonomously initiated contact with a user after learned person-topic associations fired laterally during an 8-hour idle period. From a clean start with zero learned weights, the first SNN-triggered action occurred after only 7 conversational exchanges (14 messages). Comments: Preprint. 9 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables. NeurIPS 2026 format Subjects: Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI); Neural and Evolutionary Computing (cs.NE) Cite as: arXiv:2604.12167 [cs.AI]   (or arXiv:2604.12167v1 [cs.AI] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.12167 Focus to learn more Submission history From: William Savage [view email] [v1] Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:51:47 UTC (131 KB) Access Paper: HTML (experimental) view license Current browse context: cs.AI < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-04 Change to browse by: cs cs.NE References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)