Researchers recently made a breakthrough developing printed artificial neurons that can communicate directly with real brain cells.
Using aerosol beam printing on flexible polymers, the team created ‘memristive’ networks that generate complex spike patterns and tested them on mouse brain slices.
As a result, these artificial neurons, made of molybdenum disulfide and graphene, successfully induced responses in real neurons, proving their compatibility.
According to findings published in Nature Nanotechnology, the artificial neurons operate at the exact temporal speed and signal shape needed to activate biological tissue.
During production, the researchers use innovative materials such as printable inks made from nanosheets. Instead of removing the polymer bond, they partially decomposed it to create conducting filaments, allowing a single device to produce complex signals that would normally require a large network of transistors.
The additive printing process also proved to be cheap, produced less waste and used fewer materials than traditional semiconductor manufacturing.
Mark C. Hersam of Northwestern, who led the study, says, “Other labs have tried to make artificial neurons with organic materials, but they spiked too slowly. Or they used metal oxides, which are too fast. We’re in a time range that hasn’t been demonstrated before for artificial neurons. You can see how the living neurons respond to our artificial neurons. So we’ve demonstrated signals that not only have the right time scale, but also have the right spike shape to interact directly with living neurons. communicate.”
The technology has practical uses in two areas: neuroprosthetics and neuromorphic computing. In neuroprosthetics, it can be used to develop implants to restore vision, hearing or motor function by communicating directly with the nervous system.
Neuromorphic computing involves creating a new generation of computers that learn and adapt like a biological brain instead of following fixed, prefabricated pathways.
