Technology

Scientists at Linköping University, Sweden have devised an artificial organic neuron!

Scientists at Linköping University, Sweden have devised an artificial organic neuron!

Scientists at Linköping University, Sweden have devised an artificial organic neuron!

This study comes as a continuation of the team's previous work in 2022, in which the team had integrated an artificial organic neuron into a living carnivorous plant in order to control the opening and closing of its maw. However, the neuron used in that experiment only met 2 of the 20 characteristics used to denote a true biological nerve cell—their latest study details a new artificial neuron called the “conductance-based organic electrochemical neuron,” or c-OECN for short, which mimics 15 characteristics.

In collaboration with the Karolinska Institute, these c-OECNs were put to the test. Researchers connected the neurons to the vagus nerve—the main nerves of your parasympathetic nervous system, which control involuntary body functions such as digestion of mice, and noted that their artificial neuron was capable of stimulating the mice's to create a 4.5% change in heart rate.

It goes without saying that this technology, with continued research and development, could serve as an essential foundation for future medical treatments. Luckily, continued research is exactly what the research team is planning on doing, with the next step being to reduce the energy consumption of the cOECNs to match that of far-more efficient human nerve cells. Through this research, they hope to grow a greater understanding of the human brain as a whole—as the main author of the paper, Padinhare Cholakkal Harikesh, noted, they still don't have a proper understanding of just what the 15 characteristics of the c-OECN actually accomplishes.