Nanomachine-to-Neuron Communication Interfaces for Neuronal Stimulation at Nanoscale

The recent advancements in nanotechnology have been instrumental in initiating research and development of intelligent nanomachines, in a variety of different application domains including healthcare. The stimulation of the cerebral cortex to assist the treatment of brain diseases have been investigated with growing interest in the past, where nanotechnology offers a dramatic breakthrough. In this paper, we discuss the feasibility of a nanomachine-to-neuron interface to design a nanoscale stimulator device called synaptic nanomachine (SnM), compatible with the neuronal communication paradigm. An equivalent neuron-nanomachine model (EqNN) is proposed to describe the behavior of neurons excited by a network of SnMs. Sample populations of neurons are simulated under different stimulation scenarios. The assessment of the existing correlation between SnM stimulus and response, as well as between neurons and clusters of neurons, has been performed using statistical methods. The obtained results reveal that a controlled nanoscale stimulation induces apparently an oscillatory behavior in the neuronal activity and localized synchronization between neurons. Both effects are expected to have the basis of important cognitive and behavioral functions such as learning and brain plasticity.