Vanadium dioxide circuits emulate neurological disorders

TL;DR

This paper presents a VO2-based artificial neuron system that mimics neural signaling and disorders, offering a new approach for neuroscience modeling and potential early diagnosis of neurological conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a VO2 circuit model that emulates neural activity and disorders, bridging quantum materials with neuroscience applications.

Findings

VO2 circuits can replicate neuronal firing patterns

Tuning resistance in VO2 circuits models neurological disorder origins

Potential for circuits to aid early diagnosis of brain diseases

Abstract

Information in the central nervous system (CNS) is conducted via electrical signals known as action potentials and is encoded in time. Several neurological disorders including depression, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), originate in faulty brain signaling frequencies. Here, we present a Hodgkin-Huxley model analog for a strongly correlated VO2 artificial neuron system that undergoes an electrically-driven insulator-metal transition. We demonstrate that tuning of the insulating phase resistance in VO2 threshold switch circuits can enable direct mimicry of neuronal origins of disorders in the central nervous system. The results introduce use of circuits based on quantum materials as complementary to model animal studies for neuroscience, especially when precise measurements of local electrical properties or competing parallel paths for conduction in complex neural circuits can be a challenge to identify onset of breakdown or diagnose early symptoms of disease.