Abstract
Neuromorphic hardware that accurately simulates diverse neuronal behaviours could be of use in the development of edge intelligence. Hardware that incorporates synaptic plasticity—adaptive changes that strengthen or weaken synaptic connections—has been explored, but mimicking the full spectrum of learning and memory processes requires the interplay of multiple plasticity mechanisms including intrinsic plasticity. Here we show that an integrate-and-fire neuron can be created by combining a dynamic random-access memory and an inverter that are based on wafer-scale monolayer molybdenum disulfide films. In the system, the voltage in the dynamic random-access memory capacitor—that is, the neuronal membrane potential—can be modulated to emulate intrinsic plasticity. The module can also emulate the photopic and scotopic adaptation of the human visual system by dynamically adjusting its light sensitivity. We fabricate a 3 × 3 photoreceptor neuron array and demonstrate light coding and visual adaptation. We also use the neuron module to simulate a bioinspired neural network model for image recognition.
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The source data file is available via figshare at https://figshare.com/s/a8fa70a5665cab68512d. Source data are provided with this paper.
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The codes used for simulation and data plotting are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the support for device fabrication at the Guangzhou Innovation Centre of Optoelectronics and Microelectronics (GICOM). W.B. acknowledges support from the National Key Research and Development Program (grant no. 2021YFA1200500), Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (no. 23JC1401100) and the Shanghai Pilot Program for Basic Research—Fudan University 21TQ1400100 (23TQ008). Y.C. thanks MOST National Key Technologies R&D Program (2022YFA1203804) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (62425405). W.B. and P.Z. also acknowledge support from the young scientist project of MOE innovation platform.
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Y.W., Y.C., P.Z. and W.B. conceived and supervised the project. S.G. introduced the concept of intrinsic plasticity. S.G., X.D., X.G., L.T. and J.M. fabricated the device. Y.W. and X.D. performed the BioNN simulation. Y.W., S.G., X.C., X.W. and Q.S. performed the electrical measurement. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the manuscript preparation.
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The evolution of the output spike during the learning process.
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The evolution of VW during the learning process.
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Wang, Y., Gou, S., Dong, X. et al. A biologically inspired artificial neuron with intrinsic plasticity based on monolayer molybdenum disulfide. Nat Electron 8, 680–688 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-025-01433-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-025-01433-y
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