Fundamental code unit of the brain: photoreceptor protein-mediated photonic signaling within neural tissue and its uses in brain co-processor

A system for affecting living neural tissue comprising:

• at least one photonic read modality adapted to receive photons from living neural tissue and generating a signal representing the released photons, wherein the at least one photonic read modality comprises at least one read modality neural interface adapted to be implanted in the living neural tissue;
• at least one photonic write modality adapted to deliver photons to the living neural tissue to effect alterations to the living tissue based on at least one computed signal, wherein the at least one photonic write modality comprises at least one write modality neural interface adapted to be implanted in the living neural tissue;
• wherein the at least one photonic read modality and the at least one photonic write modality comprise at least one optic fiber coated with single wall carbon nanotubes;
• and
• computing circuitry comprising a processor, memory accessible by the processor, and computer program instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to compute the at least one signal.

A non-transitory computer program product for affecting living neural tissue, the non-transitory computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer, to cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

• receiving at least one signal from at least one read modality, the signal representing release of photons from the living neural tissue, the read modality comprising at least one read modality neural interface implanted in the living neural tissue;
• computing at least one signal to effect alterations to the living neural tissue based on the received input signal, the computed signal adapted to cause transmission of photons to the living neural tissue;
• and
• delivering the photons to the living neural tissue to effect alterations to the living tissue using at least one write modality neural interface implanted in the living neural tissue;
• wherein the at least one read modality and the at least one write modality comprise at least one optic fiber coated with single wall carbon nanotubes.