Artificial nociceptor using an Ag/Ag2S/Pt atomic switch†

Abstract

Pain is an essential sensation for any living organism to thrive in the everchanging environment, and hence an important aspect to be added to the capabilities of realistic machine intelligence. Here we present an Ag/Ag₂S/Pt atomic switch as an artificial nociceptor whose voltage dependent conductance modulation is similar to that of a stimuli dependent pain sensation. Different rate limiting processes for the voltage dependent switching time illustrate its analogy to varying response times for different types of nociceptors. Distinct pain levels have been encoded in terms of quantized conductance, which is associated with opened NMDAR channels of the nociceptor network. This work emphasizes the signal dependent conductance modulation of the Ag/Ag₂S/Pt atomic switch in order to mimic the biological pathway for pain sensation that will advance the defence mechanism in neuromorphic devices.