Abstract
A novel variant of NSN P systems, called numerical spiking neural P systems with a variable consumption strategy (NSNVC P systems), is proposed. Like the spiking rules consuming spikes in spiking neural P systems, NSNVC P systems introduce a variable consumption strategy by modifying the form of the production functions used in NSN P systems. Similar to the delay feature of the spiking rules, NSNVC P systems introduce a postponement feature into the production functions. The execution of the production functions in NSNVC P systems is controlled by two, i.e., polarization and threshold, conditions. Multiple synaptic channels are used to transmit the charges and the production values in NSNVC P systems. The proposed NSNVC P systems are a type of distributed parallel computing models with a directed graphical structure. The Turing universality of the proposed NSNVC P systems is proved as number generating/accepting devices. Detailed descriptions are provided for NSNVC P systems as number generating/accepting devices. In addition, a universal NSNVC P system with 66 neurons is constructed as a function computing device.