The development of a robot controlled by a group of cells from a rat's brain could give important insights into how conditions such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy can be effectively treated.
Img: University of Reading.Credit: Agbrittanica
Scientists at the University of Reading, U.K., have used 300,000 cultured rat's neurons which communicates with the small robot by sonar. The researchers found they were able to pick up the signals generated between the disembodied neurons using electrodes and use this electrical activity to simply guide the robot.
The bunch of neurons was taken from the rat's neural cortex and then treated to dissolve the connections between them. New connections form as sensory input was provided from the robot's radar.
The brain's output is being used to instruct the robot not to bump into objects however researchers hope to be able to extend the neuron activity to allow the robot to be able to recognise its surroundings. Having achieved that step, they will then limit the memory capacity to recreate the conditions suffered in gradual memory loss conditions such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's.
Professor Kevin Warwick from the University's School of Systems Engineering, said the work will help scientists better understand the workings of the brain.
"This new research is tremendously exciting as firstly the biological brain controls its own moving robot body, and secondly it will enable us to investigate how the brain learns and memorises its experiences," he said in a news release. "This research will move our understanding forward of how brains work, and could have a profound effect on many areas of science and medicine."
Dr Ben Whalley from the School of Pharmacy, said: "One of the fundamental questions that scientists are facing today is how we link the activity of individual neurons with the complex behaviours that we see in whole organisms. This project gives us a really unique opportunity to look at something which may exhibit complex behaviours, but still remain closely tied to the activity of individual neurons. Hopefully we can use that to go some of the way to answer some of these very fundamental questions."
Watch a video of the robot under instruction from the rat's neurons here.
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