Multiplexed neurotransmission emulated for emotion control

Emotions are closely related to multiplexed neurotransmission of glutamate and acetylcholine in the hippocampus, which are competitors and partners respectively. This paper demonstrates the first hetero-junction two-dimensional dual-excitatory artificial synapse (AS) for mimicking co-release of the two different neurotransmitters. This AS for the first time presents an immediate switchable plasticity between short-term of < 10 s and long-term of > 105 s, as both avoidance tendency of negative stimuli and lasting memory of positive emotion. 105 s represents so far the best long term memory of ion-regulated ASs. Inclusion of a fourth terminal as a monitor enables the emulation of automatic emotion regulation (AER). The AS array-based neural network achieves up to ~97% recognition accuracy for emotion-correlated electroencephalogram patterns; a new concept of early warning of negative emotions is proposed for monitoring mood changes, especially useful for babies and patients with mental disease, paving the way to future bio-inspired intelligent systems.