'Brain-like device' mimics human learning in major computing breakthrough

Scientists have developed a device modelled on the human brain that can learn by association in the same way as Pavlov's dog. In the famous experiment, Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov conditioned a dog to associate a bell with food. In order to replicate this way of learning, researchers from Northwestern University in the US and the University of Hong Kong developed so-called "synaptic transistors" capable of simultaneously processing and storing information in the same way as a brain. Instead of a bell and food, the researchers conditioned the circuit to associate light with pressure by pulsing an LED lightbulb and then immediately applying pressure with a finger press. The organic electrochemical material allowed the device to build memories and after five training cycles, the circuit associated light with pressure in such a way that light alone was able to trigger a signal for the pressure.