SYNCH: A SYnaptically connected brain-silicon Neural Closed-loop Hybrid system

  • Years: 2019-2022
  • Scientific coordinator: Stefano Vassanelli (Università di Padova)
  • Contact Person: Federico Neresini e Barbara Morsello
  • Founded by European Commission, call “Future and Emerging Technologies” (FET)
  • Partnership: University of Southampton (United Kingdom), Technische Universitaet Dresden (Germany), Technische Universitaet Graz (Austria), aiCTX (Switzerland) Gonda Brain Research Center at BIU (Israel), ARC Instruments Ltd (United Kingdom), Enginsoft Spa (Italy)

Abstract

SYNCH is a multidisciplinary research project which aims—scientifically and technologically-—to create a hybrid system in which a neural network in the brain of a living animal and a silicon neural network studded on a chip are interconnected by neuromorphic synapses, thus allowing the co-evolution of connectivity and the co-processing of information of the two networks. This type of technology associates deep neurostimulation with artificial intelligence and requires a wide range of biomedical research for the treatment of various chronic and degenerative pathologies. The project combines practical and cognitive needs relating to the development of technologies, aiming to understand the impact of such innovation on care systems, infrastructures and, in particular, the different types of actors involved. 

Pa.S.T.I.S. will contribute to the latter through two investigation strategies:

  • a series of in-depth interviews aimed at the main stakeholders (patients, family members, specialist doctors, and developers) in order to understand how the technology developed in the SYNCH project can be interpreted and what expectations and concerns it may arouse in relation to its possible uses; 
  • a comparative analysis of the representation in the mass media of SYNCH-related technologies through the analysis of the partially automated content.

Area di Ricerca: Health, Medicine and Technology