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- Action potentialAn action potential is a brief, all-or-none electrical pulse that travels along a neuron's membrane when its voltage crosses a threshold. Driven by the opening and closing of sodium and potassium channels, it is the basic unit of signaling in the nervous system and the event biocomputing systems record and stimulate.
- AssembloidAn assembloid is a three-dimensional structure created by combining two or more separately grown organoids, or an organoid with other cell types, so that they integrate and interact. Brain assembloids let researchers study how neurons migrate and how distinct regions connect, which single-region organoids cannot capture.
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- BiocomputingBiocomputing is computing that uses biological materials, such as DNA molecules, engineered cells or living neurons, to store or process information. It ranges from DNA computing and synthetic gene circuits to neuron-based approaches such as organoid intelligence, where cultured human neural tissue on electrode arrays acts as the processing substrate.
- Brain organoidA brain organoid is a three-dimensional cluster of neural tissue grown from human pluripotent stem cells that self-organizes into structures resembling parts of the developing brain. Typically a few millimeters across, brain organoids contain neurons and glia, show electrical activity, and are used to study development, disease and biocomputing.
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- Hebbian learningHebbian learning is the principle, proposed by Donald Hebb in 1949, that a connection between two neurons strengthens when one repeatedly helps the other fire. It is a local, unsupervised learning rule and underlies models of associative memory, synaptic plasticity and learning in both biological and artificial neural networks.
- High-density microelectrode arrayA high-density microelectrode array (HD-MEA) is a microelectrode array built on a CMOS silicon chip, with thousands to tens of thousands of electrodes spaced only micrometers apart and amplifiers integrated beneath them. HD-MEAs record and stimulate cultured neurons, tissue slices and brain organoids at subcellular spatial resolution across a large area.
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- Microelectrode arrayA microelectrode array (MEA) is a device with many microscopic electrodes, usually on a glass or silicon surface, used to record electrical activity from neurons or heart cells and to stimulate them. Cultured neurons or brain organoids sit on the array, and each electrode picks up voltage changes from nearby cells without piercing them.
- MicrofluidicsMicrofluidics is the science and engineering of controlling very small volumes of fluid, from microliters down to picoliters, in channels tens to hundreds of micrometers wide. In biology it is used to deliver nutrients, drugs and signals to cells with precise timing and to build organ-on-chip systems.
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- Network burstsNetwork bursts are short episodes, typically lasting from tens of milliseconds to a few seconds, in which a large fraction of neurons in a cultured network or organoid fire together, separated by quieter periods. They are a hallmark of in vitro networks recorded on microelectrode arrays and a key marker of network maturity.
- Neural encoding and decodingNeural encoding is how neurons represent information, such as a stimulus, in their activity, and encoding models predict activity from that information. Neural decoding is the reverse: inferring the stimulus, intention or task variable from recorded activity. Together they form the input and output interface between living neurons and machines.
- Neurodata Without BordersNeurodata Without Borders (NWB) is an open, community-developed data standard for neurophysiology. It defines how to store recordings, stimuli, behavior and rich metadata together in a single file, usually built on HDF5, so that datasets can be shared, understood and reanalyzed across labs and software tools.
- Neuromorphic computingNeuromorphic computing is an approach to computer hardware and software that mimics the structure and dynamics of biological nervous systems. Neuromorphic chips typically use spiking neurons, event-driven communication and memory placed close to computation, with the aim of processing sensory and time-varying data with far less energy than conventional processors.
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- Organoid intelligenceOrganoid intelligence (OI) is an emerging research field that aims to use three-dimensional brain organoids, grown from human stem cells, as biological computing substrates. Researchers interface organoids with electrodes, stimulate them with encoded inputs, read their electrical responses, and study whether those living networks can learn, remember and process information.
- Organoid programmingOrganoid programming is the practice of designing, running and reproducing experiments on living neural tissue as code: stimulation protocols, closed-loop feedback rules and data analysis that are written, versioned and rerun like software, so that results from brain organoids can be compared, audited and built on.
- Organoid vascularizationOrganoid vascularization is the set of techniques used to give organoids blood vessel-like networks, so oxygen and nutrients can reach cells deep inside. Approaches include co-culture with endothelial cells, genetic induction of vascular cells, fusion with vessel organoids, transplantation into animals and microfluidic perfusion.
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- Spike sortingSpike sorting is the process of detecting action potentials in extracellular recordings and assigning each spike to the individual neuron that produced it. It typically involves filtering, spike detection, feature extraction and clustering, and it turns raw electrode voltages into per-neuron spike trains that can be analyzed or used as computing outputs.
- Spike-timing-dependent plasticitySpike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) is a learning rule in which the change in a synapse's strength depends on the precise timing between presynaptic and postsynaptic spikes. If the input neuron fires shortly before the output neuron, the synapse usually strengthens; if it fires shortly after, the synapse usually weakens.
- Spiking neural networkA spiking neural network (SNN) is an artificial neural network in which neurons communicate through discrete spikes in time, rather than continuous values. Each model neuron integrates inputs and fires when it crosses a threshold. SNNs are closer to biological neurons than standard deep learning models and are the native software for neuromorphic hardware.
- Synaptic plasticitySynaptic plasticity is the ability of synapses, the junctions between neurons, to become stronger or weaker in response to activity. It includes long-term potentiation, long-term depression, short-term changes and homeostatic scaling, and it is widely regarded as the main cellular basis of learning and memory.
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Guides that use these terms
What is organoid intelligence? The complete guide to computing with living neurons
Organoid intelligence (OI) uses lab-grown human brain organoids on electrode arrays as living computers. Learn how it works, key results, limits and ethics.
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Biocomputing vs silicon: why living neurons could fix AI's energy problem
The brain runs on about 20 W while data centers used ~415 TWh in 2024. How biocomputing compares with GPUs on energy and learning, plus the honest caveats.
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How brain organoids are grown: from stem cell to firing network
Brain organoids are grown from human stem cells that self-organize into 3D neural tissue. Learn the stages, guided vs unguided methods, limits and maturation.
Read article →