Building an artificial neuron with simple hydrophobic nanopores: a one component memristor

The Hodgkin–Huxley(HH)[1] model for the squid giant axon membrane potential has been a classic reference in neurophysiology research for more than half a century. Ion-based neuromorphic systems are a developing reseach topic[2] and by using hydrophobic gating in ion-channels[2] as a building block and the HH model as a description of their behaviour we study a simple model hydrophobic nanopore and it's ability to generate neuron-like pulses.

We use Molecular Dynamics simulations to study hydrophobic gating in a cylindrical hydrophobic nanopore imersed in an electrolyte solution and its response to an external voltage. The rates at which the pore opens can be controlled by the voltage and we construct HH-like model for the conductivity of the pore by extracting them from MD.

This pore displays an hysteretical I-V making it a very simple one component memristor and by creating a simple HH-like circut we give insight into generation of neuron-like pulses using iontronic one component memristors.

[1] A. Hodgkin, A. Huxley, J Physiol. (1952)

[2] Robin et al., Science 373, 687–691 (2021)

[3] P. Aryal et al., J. Mol. Bio. (2015)