Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) , Pohang 37673, Korea.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Texas at Dallas , Richardson, Texas 75080, United States.
ACS Nano. 2018 Feb 27;12(2):1680-1687. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.7b08331. Epub 2018 Jan 26.
The development of electronic devices possessing the functionality of biological synapses is a crucial step toward replicating the capabilities of the human brain. Of the various materials that have been used to realize artificial synapses, renewable natural materials have the advantages of being abundant, inexpensive, biodegradable, and ecologically benign. In this study, we report a biocompatible artificial synapse based on a matrix of the biopolymer ι-carrageenan (ι-car), which exploits Ag dynamics. This artificial synapse emulates the short-term plasticity (STP), paired-pulse facilitation (PPF), and transition from STP to long-term potentiation (LTP) of a biological synapse. The above-mentioned characteristics are realized by exploiting the similarities between the Ag dynamics in the ι-car matrix and the Ca dynamics in a biological synapse. By demonstrating a method that uses biomaterials and Ag dynamics to emulate synaptic functions, this study confirms that ι-car has the potential for constructing neuromorphic systems that use biocompatible artificial synapses.
开发具有生物突触功能的电子设备是复制人脑功能的关键步骤。在实现人工突触的各种材料中，可再生天然材料具有丰富、廉价、可生物降解和生态友好的优点。在这项研究中，我们报告了一种基于生物聚合物 ι-卡拉胶（ι-car）基质的生物相容性人工突触，该人工突触利用了 Ag 动力学。这种人工突触模拟了生物突触的短期可塑性（STP）、成对脉冲促进（PPF）和从 STP 到长时程增强（LTP）的转变。通过利用 ι-car 基质中的 Ag 动力学与生物突触中的 Ca 动力学之间的相似性，实现了上述特性。通过展示一种使用生物材料和 Ag 动力学来模拟突触功能的方法，本研究证实 ι-car 具有构建使用生物相容性人工突触的神经形态系统的潜力。
