A Neuromorphic Prosthesis to Restore Communication in Neuronal Networks

TLDR

We have labeled abstract lines. Let's aggregate. Findings: lines: "Highlights•We developed a novel real-time neuromorphic system acting as a neuroprosthesis•The neuroprosthesis can bidirectionally reconnect two disconnected networks•The neuroprosthesis implements a real-time spiking neural network•The spiking network can successfully replace the activity of a neural populationSummaryRecent advances in bioelectronics and neural engineering allowed the development of brain machine interfaces and neuroprostheses, capable of facilitating or recovering functionality in people with neurological disability." Also [Findings, Other] line: "Our neuroprosthetic system opens avenues for the exploitation of neuromorphic-based devices in bioelectrical therapeutics for health care.Graphical abstract" So Findings content includes all that. Other content includes the same line? Actually [Findings, Other] indicates that sentence belongs to both Findings and Other.

Abstract

Highlights•We developed a novel real-time neuromorphic system acting as a neuroprosthesis•The neuroprosthesis can bidirectionally reconnect two disconnected networks•The neuroprosthesis implements a real-time spiking neural network•The spiking network can successfully replace the activity of a neural populationSummaryRecent advances in bioelectronics and neural engineering allowed the development of brain machine interfaces and neuroprostheses, capable of facilitating or recovering functionality in people with neurological disability. To realize energy-efficient and real-time capable devices, neuromorphic computing systems are envisaged as the core of next-generation systems for brain repair. We demonstrate here a real-time hardware neuromorphic prosthesis to restore bidirectional interactions between two neuronal populations, even when one is damaged or missing. We used in vitro modular cell cultures to mimic the mutual interaction between neuronal assemblies and created a focal lesion to functionally disconnect the two populations. Then, we employed our neuromorphic prosthesis for bidirectional bridging to artificially reconnect two disconnected neuronal modules and for hybrid bidirectional bridging to replace the activity of one module with a real-time hardware neuromorphic Spiking Neural Network. Our neuroprosthetic system opens avenues for the exploitation of neuromorphic-based devices in bioelectrical therapeutics for health care.Graphical abstract