The University of Bath created an electronic analog neuron
A team of scientists from Bath University has developed an electronic device that, according to the developers, copies the behavior of neurons. So far, an artificial neuron plays the role of only one of the types of human nerve cells that work in the brain – those that are responsible for respiration and heartbeat.
However, the developers said that their technology makes it possible to create other neurons, both those that work in the brain and those located in the nerve endings throughout the body. The main task that electronic neurons perform is to reproduce the electrical activity of real cells.
And not just activity, but the work that a real neuron would do if it were connected to other cells. This is something like an analogue simulator that does not perform calculations and does not work with a “digit”.
It is worth noting that the idea underlying the project is not new. It was voiced by scientists Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley in the middle of the 20th century. They suggested that a neuron could be reproduced artificially. To do this, use a membrane that acts as an electrical circuit. It, in turn, consists of four different elements, including a capacitor and three independent ion channels with variable conductivity.
Scientists also developed a mathematical model that describes the work of ion channels with variable conductivity. As it turned out, this model really works, but only in theory and in experiments related to electricity.
And there is a need to create an artificial neuro, because this is the only way to restore, for example, a damaged nervous system. But added elements that replace artificial or damaged ones should work like real neurons.
This problem is solved by an artificial neuron, developed under the guidance of the scientist Alain Nogare. According to scientists, in an artificial neuron a specific electrical circuit, it makes it possible to reproduce the reaction of a real neuron to external factors.