Neuromorphic Gustatory System with Salt-Taste Perception, Information Processing, and Excessive-Intake Warning Capabilities

Abstract

Emulation of the process of a biological gustatory system could benefit the reconstruction of sense of taste. Here we demonstrate the first neuromorphic gustatory system that emulates the ability of taste perception, information processing, and excessive-intake warning functions. The system integrates a chitosan-derived ion-gel sensor, SnO 2 nanowire artificial synapses, and an effect-executive unit. The system accomplish perception and encoding behaviors for taste stimulation without using complex circuits and multivariate analysis, showing short response delay (<1 s), long taste memory duration (>2 h), and a wide perceptive concentration range (0.02−6 wt % salt solution). Especially, SnO 2 NW artificial synapses have extremely small response voltage (1 mV), exceeding the biological level by orders of magnitude, representing so-far the highest sensitivity record. This work provides a promising strategy to develop bioinspired and biointegrated electronics with the intention of mimicking and restoring the functions of biological sensory systems.

Stretchable, skin‐conformable neuromorphic system for tactile sensory recognizing and encoding

“…[19][20][21] For instance, by integrating carbon nanotube-based pressure sensors with conjugated polymer-based transistors, the platform can sense objects' movements and recognize braille characters. 22 And activated by TENG, MoS 2 transistors consume energy as low as 11.9 fJ per spike, which is comparable with human synapses. 23 Recently emerging organic electrochemical transistors (OECT) exhibit outstanding performances compared with conventional transistors and show great promise for artificial synapse applications, such as more memory states, ease-to-flexibility, low energy consumption, and so on.…”

Artificial Neuron Devices

“…By studying the way that the tongue processes taste and developing electronic sensors that mimic this process, researchers hope to create new technologies for a wide range of applications, from food and beverage quality control to medical diagnostics and environmental monitoring . Recently, the rise of neuromorphic devices provides new possibilities for construction of energy-efficient biomimetic chemical sensory systems. ,,− As shown in Figure b, an artificial gustatory neuron was proposed by connecting a chemical sensing part and a floating-gate neuronal transistor . The chemical sensor is used to sense the chemical concentration as an extend gate of the transistor and the floating-gate neuronal transistor encodes the chemical information as spikes.…”

“…As shown in Figure g, the spiking frequency increases with the increase of the sodium ion concentration. Additionally, an ion-gel salt sensor, an electrolyte-gated synaptic transistor, and an effective-executive unit were connected to develop a neuromorphic gustatory system with excessive-intake warning capabilities . This gustatory system would provide warning functions to avoid hypertension and cardiovascular disease.…”

“…Artificial visual systems have been developed by integrating optical sensors with synaptic devices. − These systems can implement neuromorphic image processing for the recognition of target objects. − Similarly, acoustic sensors have also been employed to create artificial auditory systems that can recognize and interpret sounds for human–computer interactions. − Olfactory and gustatory sensors have been integrated with synaptic devices to mimic the sense of smell and taste. These systems have potential applications in environmental monitoring and food safety inspections, as well as in the development of medical diagnostic tools. ,, …”

Flexible Electro‐Optical Perovskite/Electrolyte Synaptic Transistor to Emulate Photoelectric‐Synergistic Neural Learning Rules and Reflex‐Arc Behavior

“…[1][2][3][4][5] This behavior of nerve impulse conduction between neurons is replicated in abundant electronic devices, such as stack-type memristors [6][7][8][9][10][11] and lateral [12][13][14][15][16][17] and vertical [18][19][20][21][22][23][24] channel-type transistors. Among many configurations, artificial synapse devices exploiting transistor architectures can simultaneously achieve information transmission [25][26][27][28][29] and processing, [30][31][32][33][34] i.e., artificial somatosensory nerve and brain-like computing.…”