Carbon Nanotube Devices May Be Used in Brain Prostheses or Synthetic Brains

Engineering researchers have made a significant breakthrough in the use of nanotechnologies for the creation of a synthetic brain. They have constructed a carbon nanotube-synapse circuit whose behavior in tests reproduces the function of a neuron.

The team, which was led by the University of Southern California (USC; Los Angeles, USA) Prof. Alice Parker and Prof. Chongwu Zhou in the Viterbi School of Engineering Ming Hsieh department of electrical engineering, used an interdisciplinary application combining circuit design with nanotechnology to address the complicated problem of capturing brain function.

In an article, presented at the Proceedings of the IEEE/NIH 2011 Life Science Systems and Applications Workshop in April 8, 2011, held on the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Campus in Bethesda (MD, USA), the Viterbi team detailed how they were able to use carbon nanotubes to create a synapse.

Carbon nanotubes can be utilized in electronic circuits, acting as metallic conductors or semiconductors. "This is a necessary first step in the process,” said Prof. Parker, who began the looking at the possibility of developing a synthetic brain in 2006. "We wanted to answer the question: Can you build a circuit that would act like a neuron? The next step is even more complex. How can we build structures out of these circuits that mimic the function of the brain, which has 100 billion neurons and 10,000 synapses per neuron?”

Prof. Parker stressed that the actual development of a synthetic brain, or even a functional brain area is decades away, and she noted that the next obstacle for the research centers on reproducing brain plasticity in the circuits.

The human brain continually generates new neurons, makes new connections, and adapts throughout life, and creating this process through analog circuits will be an enormous task, according to Prof. Parker. She believes the ongoing research of understanding the process of human intelligence could have long-term implications for everything from developing prosthetic nanotechnology that would heal traumatic brain injuries to developing intelligent, safe cars that would protect drivers in bold new ways.

For Jonathan Joshi, a USC Viterbi PhD student who is a coauthor of the study, the interdisciplinary approach to the problem was key to the initial progress. Mr. Joshi noted that working with Prof. Zhou and his group of nanotechnology researchers provided the ideal dynamic of circuit technology and nanotechnology.

"The interdisciplinary approach is the only approach that will lead to a solution. We need more than one type of engineer working on this solution,” said Mr. Joshi. "We should constantly be in search of new technologies to solve this problem.”

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