  While there is still a lot to learn about astrocytes and their
neuromodulatory role in the spatial and temporal integration of neuronal
activity, their introduction to neuromorphic hardware is timely, facilitating
their computational exploration in basic science questions as well as their
exploitation in real-world applications. Here, we present an astrocytic module
that enables the development of a spiking Neuronal-Astrocytic Network (SNAN)
into Intel's Loihi neuromorphic chip. The basis of the Loihi module is an
end-to-end biophysically plausible compartmental model of an astrocyte that
simulates the intracellular activity in response to the synaptic activity in
space and time. To demonstrate the functional role of astrocytes in SNAN, we
describe how an astrocyte may sense and induce activity-dependent neuronal
synchronization, switch on and off spike-time-dependent plasticity (STDP) to
introduce single-shot learning, and monitor the transition between ordered and
chaotic activity at the synaptic space. Our module may serve as an extension
for neuromorphic hardware, by either replicating or exploring the distinct
computational roles that astrocytes have in forming biological intelligence.
