Artificial pain-perceptual nociceptor emulation based on graphene oxide synaptic transistors

Abstract

Pain-perceptual nociceptors play a crucial role as sensory neurons, detecting noxious stimuli and enabling the human body to respond effectively while accurately perceiving atypical or hazardous situations in reality. Hence, the utilization of emerging devices in hardware to incorporate pain-perceptual nociceptors can significantly enhance the effectiveness of bionic devices by providing them with varying sensitivities towards external stimuli based on specific objectives. In this study, we have developed a pain-perceptive nociceptor by combining a temperature sensor with a synaptic transistor. To emulate synaptic functions and features of nociceptors, a graphene oxide synaptic transistor with sodium alginate electrolyte as gate dielectric is utilized. This device has the ability to replicate significant attributes of pain-perceptive nociceptors, including the threshold for pain, memory of prior injury, and modulation of pain sensitivity. For the purpose of perceiving pain, temperature sensing is achieved by employing a MoS2 temperature sensor for the pain-perceptual nociceptors. The suggested device has the potential to create novel possibilities for the applications of advanced neuromorphic brain-like systems, like electronic skins, wearable sensing and implantable bioelectronics.