Single Organic Electrochemical Neuron Capable of Anticoincidence Detection

Abstract Emulating complex neural computations like solving linearly inseparable data within single artificial neurons has remained an elusive goal in neuromorphic engineering. Here, we report an unprecedented dendritic organic electrochemical neuron (d-OECN) capable of achieving anticoincidence detection by classifying the exclusive-OR (XOR) problem - a quintessential linearly inseparable task - within an individual neuron. Inspired by human cortical neurons that perform XOR through dendritic calcium spikes, the d-OECN leverages ion-tunable anti-ambipolarity in mixed ionic-electronic conducting polymers to mimic voltage-gated dendritic calcium dynamics. Integrating this dendritic component with a tunable spiking neuron soma, the d-OECN successfully solves XOR via its inherent nonlinear activation profile. Crucially, the decision boundaries of the classification are ionically and electrically tunable. This d-OECN, replicating sophisticated biological intelligence, constitutes a major neuromorphic advance paving the way for next-generation bioelectronics and robotics requiring complex neural computation.