March 28, 2024

Neural Nanotechnology: Nanowire Networks Learn and Remember Like a Human Brain

” This nanowire network is like a synthetic neural network because the nanowires act like neurons, and the places where they connect with each other are comparable to synapses,” senior author Professor Zdenka Kuncic, from the School of Physics, stated.
” Instead of executing some kind of machine knowing task, in this study, Dr. Loeffler has actually taken it one action even more and tried to show that nanowire networks show some type of cognitive function.”
Zdenka Kuncic. Credit: University of Sydney
To evaluate the capabilities of the nanowire network, the researchers offered it a test comparable to a common memory job utilized in human psychology experiments, called the N-Back job.
For an individual, the N-Back job might include remembering a specific photo of a cat from a series of feline images provided in a sequence. An N-Back rating of 7, the average for people, shows the person can acknowledge the very same image that appeared seven actions back.
When applied to the nanowire network, the researchers found it could keep in mind a preferred endpoint in an electric circuit seven actions back, indicating a score of 7 in an N-Back test.
” What we did here is manipulate the voltages of completion electrodes to require the pathways to alter, rather than letting the network simply do its own thing. We required the paths to go where we wanted them to go,” Dr. Loeffler said.
” When we carry out that, its memory had much higher precision and didnt truly reduce in time, suggesting that weve discovered a way to strengthen the paths to push them towards where we want them, and then the network remembers it.
Alon Loeffler Credit: Alon Loeffler.
” Neuroscientists think this is how the brain works, particular synaptic connections strengthen while others damage, and thats believed to be how we preferentially keep in mind some things, how we find out, and so on.”
The researchers said when the nanowire network is continuously enhanced, it reaches a point where that reinforcement is no longer required because the details is consolidated into memory.
” Its sort of like the difference in between long-lasting memory and short-term memory in our brains,” Professor Kuncic stated.
” If we want to keep in mind something for an extended period of time, we truly need to keep training our brains to combine that, otherwise it just type of disappear over time.
” One job revealed that the nanowire network can keep up to seven products in memory at substantially higher than possibility levels without reinforcement training and near-perfect precision with reinforcement training.”
Recommendation: “Neuromorphic knowing, working memory, and metaplasticity in nanowire networks” by Alon Loeffler, Adrian Diaz-Alvarez, Ruomin Zhu, Natesh Ganesh, James M. Shine, Tomonobu Nakayama and Zdenka Kuncic, 21 April 2023, Science Advances.DOI: 10.1126/ sciadv.adg3289.

” In this research study, we found higher-order cognitive function, which we usually associate with the human brain, can be imitated in non-biological hardware,” Dr. Loeffler said.
Photograph of nanowire network (left), networks paths altering and enhancing (right). Credit: Alon Loeffler
” This work constructs on our previous research in which we demonstrated how nanotechnology could be utilized to develop a brain-inspired electrical gadget with neural network-like circuitry and synapse-like signaling.
” Our current work paves the method towards replicating brain-like knowing and memory in non-biological hardware systems and suggests that the underlying nature of brain-like intelligence might be physical.”
Neural network (left) nanowire network (right). Nanowire networks are a type of nanotechnology generally made from small, highly conductive silver wires that are undetectable to the naked eye, covered in a plastic product, which are spread across each other like a mesh.
Advances in nanowire networks could herald lots of real-world applications, such as enhancing robotics or sensor devices that require to make fast decisions in unpredictable environments.

Scientists have demonstrated that nanowire networks can show short- and long-term memory, comparable to the human brain. These networks, consisted of extremely conductive silver wires covered in plastic and arranged in a mesh-like pattern, simulate the physical structure of the human brain. The team effectively checked the nanowire networks memory abilities utilizing a job similar to human psychology experiments. This breakthrough in nanotechnology recommends that non-biological hardware systems might potentially reproduce brain-like learning and memory, and has many real-world applications, such as improving robotics and sensing unit devices in unpredictable environments.
Human-Like Intelligence Could Be Physical
In a groundbreaking research study, an international group has shown that nanowire networks can mimic the short- and long-lasting memory functions of the human brain. This development paves the way for replicating brain-like knowing and memory in non-biological systems, with potential applications in robotics and sensing unit gadgets.
An international team led by scientists at the University of Sydney has demonstrated nanowire networks can display both brief- and long-lasting memory like the human brain.
The research study has been released today in the journal Science Advances, led by Dr. Alon Loeffler, who got his PhD in the School of Physics, with collaborators in Japan.

Researchers have demonstrated that nanowire networks can show brief- and long-term memory, comparable to the human brain. These networks, made up of extremely conductive silver wires covered in plastic and organized in a mesh-like pattern, imitate the physical structure of the human brain. The team successfully evaluated the nanowire networks memory capabilities using a job comparable to human psychology experiments. Neural network (left) nanowire network (right). Nanowire networks are a type of nanotechnology typically made from small, extremely conductive silver wires that are unnoticeable to the naked eye, covered in a plastic material, which are scattered throughout each other like a mesh.