Electrical engineering and neuroscience are converging — here's where, and where it's headed.
Where the ideas crossed
- The integrate-and-fire neuron1907an RC circuit, returned as the spiking neuron in neuromorphic chips — both ways
- Rate coding1926valve amplifiers from radio, sensitive enough for one nerve fibre — engineering enabled it
- The artificial neuron1943the neuron read as a thresholded sum of its inputs — biology inspired it
- Hebbian learning1949Fire together, wire together — biology inspired it
- The voltage clamp1949the ionic currents underlying the action potential — engineering enabled it
- The Hodgkin–Huxley model1952circuit theory, returned as silicon neurons — both ways
- Receptive fields in visual cortex1962microelectrodes and amplifiers quiet enough to isolate one cell — engineering enabled it
- The patch clamp1976single ion channels became observable — engineering enabled it
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation1985human motor cortex mapped non-invasively — engineering enabled it
- The silicon retina1988the retina's habit of reporting only change — biology inspired it
- Neuromorphic computing1990the brain's spiking, event-driven efficiency — biology inspired it
- Reward prediction error1997error-driven control and the prediction it corrects — engineering enabled it
- Optogenetics2005fast optical switching, fibres and implanted micro-LEDs — engineering enabled it
- Neuropixels probes2017population dynamics across many areas simultaneously — engineering enabled it