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Perspectives on Neuroscience
Published on: July 31, 2007
Towards information processing from nonlinear physical chemistry: a synthetic electrochemical cognitive system
Saman Sadeghi1, Michael Thompson
1Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging, UCLA, 570 Westwood Plaza, Building 114, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. samsadeghi@mednet.ucla.edu
Bio Systems
|August 14, 2010
Summary
Complex materials far from equilibrium respond to their environment using emergent patterns. This study explores surface electrochemical processes, revealing potential for electrochemical cognitive systems (ECS) through pattern formation.
Area of Science:
- Complex systems science
- Nonlinear dynamics
- Materials science
Background:
- Complex animate materials far from equilibrium display sensory responses via emergent patterns.
- Pattern formation is key to active responses and distributed information processing in these systems.
- Emergent patterns are observed in diverse nonlinear dissipative systems, not just biological ones.
Purpose of the Study:
- To detect emergent phenomena in surface electrochemical processes.
- To demonstrate how these phenomena enable systems to respond to environmental inputs.
- To explore the potential for developing electrochemical cognitive systems (ECS).
Main Methods:
- Investigated surface electrochemical processes.
- Analyzed the formation of spatio-temporal patterns.
- Utilized associative mapping principles.
Main Results:
- Detected emergent phenomena in electrochemical surface processes.
- Demonstrated pattern evolution in response to input information.
- Linked pattern formation to underlying microscopic distributive computing.
Conclusions:
- Surface electrochemical processes exhibit emergent phenomena enabling environmental responsiveness.
- Emergent patterns in these systems can be viewed as a macroscopic manifestation of microscopic computation.
- This research opens avenues for creating electrochemical cognitive systems (ECS).
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