Artificial synapse using a biohybrid model: new possibilities and beginnings

Thursday, 09 de July de 2020

Nowadays biohybrid models are showing new possibilities to overcome ancient problems. Maybe this new way of technology associated with artificial intelligence (AI) will be the new mark of this generation.

But, what are biohybrid models?

Bio comes from the idea of biological and organic components, whereas hybrid comes from the combination of compounds. Biohybrid models refer to the combination of properties that are not found in conventional materials. They are prepared by combining organic and inorganic components to result in new multifunctional material.

Thinking about this idea, a group of scientists from Stanford (USA) and from Italian Institute of Technology (Italy) developed an inorganic synthetic material that allows artificial synapse interaction with organic alive neurons. This neuromorphic process mimics the mainly natural human biologic communication in the brain. The group’s idea came from the use of artificial neural networks (ANNs), a type of AI, in biological systems. ANNs algorithms are used in a variety of biomedical interfaces, such as prosthetics and brain-machine interfaces. However, ANNs implementations rely on software to run the algorithms. The scientists thought about creating hardware to directly interface ANNs with the living tissues which could adapt based on in locus biofeedback.

Keene and colleagues (2020) built up the inorganic synthetic hardware consisting of two polymer electrodes separated by a channel filled with an electrolyte solution. The channel plays the organic role of the synaptic gap between neurons. The neuromorphic device was coupled with biological dopaminergic cells and mimicked the dopamine recycling machinery.

The biologic living cells sample used came from mice neuroendocrinal cells. The cells were placed on top of the polymer electrode. The synaptic induction from the living cell released dopamine which reacted with the electrode producing ions. The ions produced by the electrode traveled through the channel to the other polymer electrode and were capable of modulating the conductive state of this second electrode. This process mimicked the same learning process observed in biological synapses, where data and memory storage takes place in a single action.

The study showed the start of a new era where artificial neuromorphic systems can interact with biological neural networks, in other words, the communications that combine chemistry and electricity is possible. This is the first step in a long way towards more efficient brain-machine interfaces and even more, studies are necessary to achieve this goal.

References:

José, N. M., & Prado, L. A. S. D. A. (2005). Materiais híbridos orgânico-inorgânicos: preparação e algumas aplicações. Química Nova, 28(2), 281-288.

Keene, S. T., Lubrano, C., Kazemzadeh, S., Melianas, A., Tuchman, Y., Polino, G., & Santoro, F. (2020). A biohybrid synapse with neurotransmitter-mediated plasticity. Nature Materials, 1-5.

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Autor: Patrícia Mayara Moura da Silva

#neuroscience #physiologyandbehavior #responsedevices #attentioncontrolconsciousness #functionalconnectivity