Mimicking the brain, in silicon - MIT News Office

Mimicking the brain, in silicon - MIT News Office: With about 400 transistors, the silicon chip can simulate the activity of a single brain synapse...
The MIT researchers designed their computer chip so that the transistors could mimic the activity of different ion channels...

Previously, researchers had built circuits that could simulate the firing of an action potential, but not all of the circumstances that produce the potentials. “If you really want to mimic brain function realistically, you have to do more than just spiking. You have to capture the intracellular processes that are ion channel-based,” Poon says.