Developing Artificial Neurons on Silicon Chips to Boost Medical Devices

International scientists including the Professor from the New Zealand University of Auckland invented Artificial Neurons on Silicon Chips that behave like the real thing.

They reported such researchers have successfully reproduced the electrical properties are biological neurons onto semiconductor chips.

Benefits of the Technology:

The First Kind of achievement gives enormous scope for medical devices to alleviate medical conditions such as neuronal degeneration, spinal cord injury & paralysis & heart failure.

The artificial neurons are behaving just like biological neurons.

This type of designing artificial neurons that respond to electrical signals from the nervous system is work to real neurons has been a major goal in medicine for decades.

They are open to the possibility of curing conditions in which neurons are not working properly, or have had their processes severed as in spinal cord injury, or have died.

The Artificial neurons are repaired to the diseased bio-circuits to replicate their healthy function & respond adequately to biological feedback to restore bodily function. They only need 140 nanoWatts which are the one-billionth power of a microprocessor.

Neurons are suited for use in medical implants and other bio-electronic devices in order to treat chronic diseases.

The research team is led by the University of Bath & including researchers to the Universities of Auckland, Bristol & Zurich, describe the artificial neurons in a study published in Nature Communications.

The University of Auckland explained this opens up enormous opportunities for smarter medical devices that drive towards personalized medicine approaches to a range of diseases & disabilities.

Know The Process Silicon chip:

Researchers are successfully modeled & derived equations to explain how the neurons respond to the electrical stimuli from other nerves.

They are complicated to the fact that neurons are inherently ‘non-linear’.

Non-linear means that if a signal becomes twice as strong it would not necessarily elicit twice as big a reaction. Some might be thrice bigger or only half the size.

These special designs to the silicon chips they accurately modeled biological ion channels are proving to their silicon neurons precisely mimicked real, living neurons responding to the range of simulations.

Researchers have accurately replicated the complete dynamics of hippocampal neurons which are crucial for learning & memory, to respiratory neurons that are essential for breathing, under a wide range of stimuli.

These approaches are combined with several breakthroughs. The Precise parameters are control any neuron’s behavior that can be accurately estimated with high certainty.

Physical models of the hardware were created. They have demonstrated their ability to successfully mimic the behavior of real living neurons.

It can effectively mimic different types & functions of a wide range of complex mammalian neurons.

The University of Zurich is added to how this work opens new horizons for the neuromorphic chip and is designed to its unique approach to the identification of crucial analog circuit parameters.

This all study is funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 Future Emerging Technologies Programme grant &  doctoral studentship funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (ESPRC).

Silicon Chip Might Replace The Damaged Brain Cells:

This Step is Six Million Dollar Man. The first artificial pacemaker is implanted half a century ago, & arguably before, humans are worked to create technology that can repair & replace their own body parts. These devices work to mimicking human biology.

The scientists manage to reproduce to the particularly enigmatic biological process: In these electrical activities of the neurons, they include brain cells. The Neurons send information throughout their body in the form of electrical signals.

The University of Bath in the U.K. explains the method of making silicon chips are they can usually function like real neurons. The researchers are said that the technique could one day be used to repair parts of the nervous system that are damaged by any disease.

The Biological to Bionic:

These ideas of building artificial neurons synapses & entire brain networks are not exactly new. In 1991 for some example, scientists have created a silicon chip modeled to real nerve cells. But the researchers are largely used to the biological processes as an inspiration for these devices they attempt to faithfully replicate to the behavior of individual brain cells.

Increase some thought of the scientists are turning to bio-electronic devices. The tech like microcircuits & electrodes and sensors can be implanted in the human body as a way to potentially treat chronic diseases.

These studies authors say that this shift necessitates technology It can transmit information between a biological cell & a bio-electronic circuit. It can microcircuits & other devices it will be able to the process (raw) stimuli are going to the from of the nervous system. These devices would interface with the patient’s nervous system is much like a normal neuron.

The study of these researchers needed to design a chip that responds to the electrical signals in the same way as actual brain cells.

The scientists are able to create silicon chips that replicated the behavior of individual neurons from the hippo-campus Its plays a key role in these learning & memory, and the respiratory system. After running 60 different types of electrical stimulation through the chips, they found the synthetic neurons are almost identical to electrical responses as biological brain cells.

The researchers describe how the device might offer new possibilities in disease treatment. It notes the respiratory neurons responsible for regulating the rhythms that influence certain breathing & heart functions. These rhythms degrade, often a result of age or disease it can lead to conditions like sleep apnea & even heart failure.

The artificial neuron or group of neurons stepping into the pick up the slack for aging brain cells might one day offer a potential therapy for these & other conditions.