Becoming Cyborg

19 August 2008

Rats on Robots

Posted by Andrew Garcia under: Cybernetics; Cyborg Culture; Evolution; Technology .

I would like to share yet another AWESOME link:

http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/mg19926696.100-rise-of-the-ratbrained-robots.html

To my knowledge this is the first working neural interface to a robot that exists.

Here’s an abstract:

To create the “brain”, the neural cortex from a rat fetus is surgically removed and disassociating enzymes applied to it to disconnect the neurons from each other. The researchers then deposit a slim layer of these isolated neurons into a nutrient-rich medium on a bank of electrodes, where they start reconnecting. They do this by growing projections that reach out to touch the neighbouring neurons. “It’s just fascinating that they do this,” says Steve Potter of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, who pioneered the field of neurally controlled animats. “Clearly brain cells have evolved to reconnect under almost any circumstance that doesn’t kill them.”

After about five days, patterns of electrical activity can be detected as the neurons transmit signals around what has become a very dense mesh of axons and dendrites. The neurons seem to be randomly firing, producing pulses of voltage known as action potentials. Often, though, many or all of them will fire in unison, a phenomenon known as “bursting”.

Now what interested me, besides the fact that neurons will grow onto chips and can fire off synaptic connections in nearly any environment that won’t kill them, is that the famed Kevin Warwick is involved in the project…anyone should have seen that coming!

Check out the video-

This represents a major step forward for neural interfacing. Something particularly fascinating is how neurons become bored and start spontaneously firing suggesting seizure like activity. Warwick and his team take advantage of this phenomenon and fire off patterns of stimuli to drive neural impulses. The impulses can be catered depending on the culture used for the chip to hone in on certain behaviors for the robot (which in this model, represents a physical manifestation of the rat’s neural activity).

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