Neuromorphic synapses with reconfigurable voltage-gated dynamics for biohybrid neural circuits

Chemical synapses are the main link between neurons in biological neural networks, giving neural cells their special ability to communicate action potentials with great temporal precision. As such, neuromorphic synapses could serve as critical units for implementing biohydrid circuits interfacing biological and silicon neurons. Here we describe a biophysical model of a chemical synapse with reconfigurable pre-synaptic and post-synaptic voltage-gated dynamics implemented on a neuromorphic VLSI chip, and evaluate its versatility with measurements from the chip reproducing response characteristics from ionotropic inhibitory GABA
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and excitatory NMDA synapses. We also discuss applications of the reconfigurable dynamic clamp capabilities of the neuromorphic synapse for interacting neuronal populations and biological neurons to establish biohybrid circuits ranging from the single-cell to the population level with intra- and extra-cellular interfaces, respectively.