Two-way Communication with Lab Grown "Brains" Shown

Technocrat

Two-way Communication with Lab Grown "Brains" Shown

zogger

Fri Aug 04 16:20:39 -0700 2006

Biology.

manage

Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed what they call an "animat", a petri dish grown brain -rat neurons grown on a lattice- that is able to both receive and send information. Although still quite primitive, it could be looked at as the first step towards an artificial brain, even though they say that isn't the goal.

...."In theory, animats seem to cross the line from mass of goo to autonomous brain. But Steve Potter, a neuroscientist and head of the Georgia Tech lab where the animats were created, said his brain clumps won't be reciting French philosophy anytime soon."....more there

Two-way Communication with Lab Grown "Brains" Shown

Clay Barnes

Fri Aug 04 17:01:53 -0700 2006
manage

Let's hope they get brains ready for transplant in time for the election cycle. Sure what they have is pretty primative, but have you seen the legislation that's being written/passed? They've quite the low bar to deal with in the grey-matter department.

Two-way Communication with Lab Grown "Brains" Shown

Doug Coulter

Sat Aug 05 14:01:22 -0700 2006
manage

I've done a tiny amount of work in this field, talking/listening to neurons. It has always amazed me that many scientists aren't even using what one would suppose is the "native language" to try to talk to them, which is little bursts of various ions in a sort of PRF scheme -- we can measure them as electrical pulses, but "that's not how it works in nature". Instead, researchers use big whopping DC, or at best pulses, which quickly "burn out" the interface in most prosthetics due to chemical depletion effects. Learning just a little more here might be a very good thing. Think of cochlear implants that are expensive and hard to put in, but which fail and often do so in a way that they can't be replaced. Parents of children who are profoundly deaf at birth are right now faced with some terrifying and expensive decisions. Normal development in other areas is very much hampered by the lack of hearing. For example, an infant is completely abandonded when mom leaves the room, as it cannot hear the TV or her puttering around the kitchen.