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A chemically mediated artificial neuron

An Author Correction to this article was published on 16 September 2022

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Abstract

Brain–machine interfaces typically rely on electrophysiological signals to interpret and transmit neurological information. In biological systems, however, neurotransmitters are chemical-based interneuron messengers. This mismatch can potentially lead to incorrect interpretation of the transmitted neuron information. Here we report a chemically mediated artificial neuron that can receive and release the neurotransmitter dopamine. The artificial neuron detects dopamine using a carbon-based electrochemical sensor and then processes the sensory signals using a memristor with synaptic plasticity, before stimulating dopamine release through a heat-responsive hydrogel. The system responds to dopamine exocytosis from rat pheochromocytoma cells and also releases dopamine to activate pheochromocytoma cells, forming a chemical communication loop similar to interneurons. To illustrate the potential of this approach, we show that the artificial neuron can trigger the controllable movement of a mouse leg and robotic hand.

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Fig. 1: Conceptual schematic of a neurotransmitter-mediated artificial neuron.
Fig. 2: Characterization of individual building blocks for artificial neuron.
Fig. 3: Chemically mediated artificial synapse with in-sensing memory and memristor-mediated DA-releasing behaviours.
Fig. 4: System demonstration of an interneuron.
Fig. 5: Artificial neuron for neurointerfaces.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFA0205302, L.W.); Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province—Major Project (BK20212012, L.W.); National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFB3601200, M.W.); National Natural Science Foundation of China (81971701, B.H.); the Natural Science Foundation for Young Scholars of Jiangsu Province (BK20210596, T.W.); the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20201352, B.H.); the Program of Jiangsu Specially-Appointed Professor (B.H. and T.W.); Science Foundation of Nanjing University of Post and Telecommunications (NUPTSF, NY221004, T.W.); the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) under its AME Programmatic Funding Scheme (Project #A18A1b0045, X.C.); the National Research Foundation (NRF), Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore, under its NRF Investigatorship (NRF-NRFI2017-07, X.C.); and Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE2017-T2-2-107, X.C.).

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Authors

Contributions

T.W., M.W. and X.C. designed the study. T.W., J.W., Z.L., H.Z. and J.N. designed and characterized the DA sensor and hydrogel. T.W., X.Y., R.L., Y.T., K.C., B.Y., S.L. and B.H. characterized the artificial neuron/PC12 cells biointerface. S.L. and F.L conducted the patch-clamping test. S.C, Y.Y., B.H., G.X. and X.F. characterized the artificial neuron/sciatic biointerface. T.W. and M.W. designed and characterized the memristor. T.W., Y.L., S.J. and Z.C. fabricated the hydrogel and microfluidics. T.W. and M.W. fabricated and characterized the system. T.W., M.W., L.W. and X.C. wrote the paper and all the authors provided feedback.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Benhui Hu or Xiaodong Chen.

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Nature Electronics thanks Jun Chen, Tsuyoshi Sekitani and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Notes 1–12, Table 1, Figs. 1–25 and refs. 1–12.

Reporting Summary

Supplementary Video 1

DA-modulated releasing behaviour.

Supplementary Video 2

Fluorescence Ca2+ imaging to indicate the activation of neuron cells by the released DA stimuli.

Supplementary Video 3

An afferent motor neuron where DA triggers muscle contraction.

Supplementary Data 1

Performance variations based on 12 sensors.

Supplementary Data 2

Device-to-device variation in the memory switching characteristics for ten memristor devices.

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Wang, T., Wang, M., Wang, J. et al. A chemically mediated artificial neuron. Nat Electron 5, 586–595 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-022-00803-0

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