Maya-Prana: Metabolic Plasticity Budget for Continual Learning in Affective Spiking Neural Networks

Without Prana, nothing moves, nothing learns, nothing grows. We present Maya-Prana, the ninth and final paper in the Maya Research Series, which completes the Antahkarana by introducing Prana (प्राण) as a metabolic plasticity budget governing how much learning the system can sustain per unit time. Prana is modelled on the Astrocyte-Neuron Lactate Shuttle (ANLS): astrocytes supply lactate fuel to active neurons during sustained synaptic activity; when metabolic demand exceeds supply, plasticity degrades. In Maya-Prana, Prana is a scalar budget that depletes under gradient load proportional to gradient magnitude and neural activity, recovers during low-activity batches modulated by Vairagya, partially restores…