We brie y present (basic ideas, some examples, classes of spiking neural P systems, some results concerning their power, research topics) a recently initiated branch of membrane computing with motivation from neural computing. Further details can be found at the web page of membrane computing, from http://psystems.disco.unimib.it. 1 The General Framework The most intuitive way to introduce spik...

The phosphorylation of specific membrane proteins by endogenous protein kinase in synaptic membrane fractions from rat cerebrum has been studied using the technique of acrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate. The endogenous phosphorylation of two specific membrane proteins was found to be regulated by adenosine 3’ : 5’-monophosphate (cyclic AMP). The minimal mol...

The phosphorylation of specific membrane proteins by endogenous protein kinase in synaptic membrane fractions from rat cerebrum has been studied using the technique of acrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate. The endogenous phosphorylation of two specific membrane proteins was found to be regulated by adenosine 3’ : 5’-monophosphate (cyclic AMP). The minimal mol...

Neural processing rests on the intracellular transformation of information as synaptic inputs are translated into action potentials. This transformation is governed by the spike threshold, which depends on the history of the membrane potential on many temporal scales. While the adaptation of the threshold after spiking activity has been addressed before both theoretically and experimentally, it...

Membrane depolarization is a critical component of neural signaling; in recent years there also has been a great deal of evidence that membrane depolarization can regulate neural gene expression. Therefore, excitatory neurotransmission may be an important mechanism of neural plasticity. We have investigated the intracellular pathways and DNA regulatory elements through which membrane depolariza...

An advanced optical activation of neural tissues is demonstrated using pulsed infrared light and plasmonic gold nanorods. Photothermal effect localized in plasma membrane triggers action potentials of in vivo neural tissues. Compared with conventional infrared stimulation, the suggested method can increase a neural responsivity and lower a threshold stimulation level significantly, thereby redu...