Enhance sensitivity to illumination and synchronization in light-dependent neurons*

Abstract

When a phototube is activated to connect a neural circuit, the output voltage becomes sensitive to external illumination because the photocurrent across the phototube can be controlled by external electromagnetic wave. The channel currents from different branch circuits have different impacts on the outputs voltage of the neural circuit. In this paper, a phototube is incorporated into different branch circuits in a simple neural circuit, and then a light-controlled neuron is obtained for further nonlinear analysis. Indeed, the phototube is considered as exciting source when it is activated by external illumination, and two kinds of light-sensitive neurons are obtained when the phototube is connected to capacitor or induction coil, respectively. Electric synapse coupling is applied to detect possible synchronization between two functional neurons, and the energy consumption along the coupling channel via resistor is estimated. The analog circuits for the two kinds of light-sensitive neurons are supplied for further confirmation by using Multisim. It is found that two light-sensitive neurons and neural circuits can be synchronized by taming the coupling intensity carefully. It provides possible clues to understand the synchronization mechanism for eyes and artificial sensors which are sensitive to illumination. Finally, a section for open problems is supplied for further investigation about its collective behaviors in the network with/without synapse coupling.

Dynamics in a light-sensitive neuron with two capacitive variables

“…When functional components such as phototube [17,18], thermistor [19,20], Josephson junction [21][22][23] and memristor [24][25][26] are incorporated into the neural circuits [27][28][29][30][31], external physical signals including light, temperature changes, magnetic field can be estimated by imposing equivalent channel currents on the neuron models. Biological neurons show distinct self-adaptive property and inner parameter adjustment or synaptic controllability are crucial for selecting suitable firing modes in fast way.…”

Synchronization and firing mode transition of two neurons in a bilateral auditory system driven by a high–low frequency signal

“…[21][22][23][24] Phototubes can convert optical signals into electrical signals. So neural circuits coupled with phototubes can be used as biophysical light-dependent neurons, [25][26][27][28] which have potential application value in the design of artificial eyes. Since the channel current through a Josephson junction depends on the external magnetic field, [29,30] the neuron circuit embedded in the Josephson junction can be used to sense the influence of the magnetic field.…”

Dynamics and synchronization of neural models with memristive membranes under energy coupling

“…[8][9][10][11][12][13] The neural circuit with abundant functions and behavior is reconstructed by connecting with different electric components. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Indeed, the firing behavior of a neuron is related to the gradient distribution of an electromagnetic field, induced by exchanging and transporting intracellular and extracellular ions with concentration diversity. Based on the biophysical motivation, a kind of neural model with electromagnetic effects has been proposed and in-vestigated in recent years.…”