Landsmeer Lennart P L, Hua Erbing, Abunahla Heba, Siddiqi Muhammad Ali, Ishihara Ryoichi, De Zeeuw Chris I, Hamdioui Said, Strydis Christos
Department of Quantum and Computing Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands.
Neurocomputing Lab, Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Front Neurosci. 2025 Jul 18;19:1569397. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1569397. eCollection 2025.
In 2012, potassium and sodium ion channels in Hodgkin-Huxley-based brain models were shown to exhibit memristive behavior. This positioned memristors as strong candidates for implementing biologically accurate artificial neurons. Memristor-based brain simulations offer advantages in energy efficiency, scalability, and compactness, benefiting fields such as soft robotics, embedded systems, and neuroprosthetics.
Previous approaches used current-controlled Mott memristors, which poorly matched the voltage-controlled nature of ion channels. This study employs volatile, oxide-based memristors that leverage electric-field-driven oxygen-vacancy migration to emulate voltage-dependent channel behavior. We selected candidate WOx and NbOx memristors and modeled their dynamics to verify performance as Hodgkin-Huxley potassium channels.
The device exhibits sigmoidal gating and voltage-dependent time constants consistent with the theoretical model. By scaling the passive circuitry around the memristors, we show that they capture the essential mechanisms of potassium ion-channels, although spike height is reduced due to strong non-linear voltage-dependence. Still, by cascading multiple compartments, typical spike propagation is retained.
This is the first demonstration of a voltage-controlled memristor replicating the Hodgkin-Huxley potassium channel, validating its potential for more efficient brain simulation hardware.
2012年，基于霍奇金-赫胥黎模型的大脑模型中的钾离子和钠离子通道被证明具有忆阻行为。这使得忆阻器成为实现生物精确人工神经元的有力候选者。基于忆阻器的大脑模拟在能源效率、可扩展性和紧凑性方面具有优势，对软机器人技术、嵌入式系统和神经假体等领域有益。
以前的方法使用电流控制的莫特忆阻器，其与离子通道的电压控制特性不太匹配。本研究采用挥发性氧化物基忆阻器，利用电场驱动的氧空位迁移来模拟电压依赖性通道行为。我们选择了候选的氧化钨（WOx）和氧化铌（NbOx）忆阻器，并对其动力学进行建模，以验证其作为霍奇金-赫胥黎钾通道的性能。
该器件表现出与理论模型一致的S型门控和电压依赖性时间常数。通过缩放忆阻器周围的无源电路，我们表明它们捕捉到了钾离子通道的基本机制，尽管由于强烈的非线性电压依赖性，尖峰高度降低了。尽管如此，通过级联多个隔室，典型的尖峰传播得以保留。
这是首次展示电压控制忆阻器复制霍奇金-赫胥黎钾通道，验证了其在更高效大脑模拟硬件方面的潜力。
