Lab-grown brain cells play the video game Pong
Researchers who grew a brain cell culture in a lab claim that they taught the cells to play a version of Pong.
Overview:
- Scientists have grown 8,00000 brain cells in a lab that they say have learned to play the 1970s tennis-like video game Pong.
- Scientists have taught brain cells how to play the video game Pong, and they now plan to experiment with getting them drunk.
Melbourne, 13 Oct. Scientists claim that 800,000 brain cells grown in a lab have mastered the tennis-themed computer game Pong from the 1970s. The study, just published in the journal Neuron, is the first to demonstrate that brain cells cultured in a dish can complete tasks with a specific end in mind.
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The team consists of academics from Monash University, RMIT University, University College London, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. It will now investigate how alcohol and drugs influence its DishBrain.
The Brain cell plays game
For the experiment, the scientist cultured stem cells from human and mouse embryonic brains and mice embryonic brain cells on top of microelectrode arrays that could read and trigger their activity. Dishbrain received information about the side of the ball through the firing of electrodes on the left or right of one array, and the frequency of impulses determined the distance from the paddle. According to the researchers, feedback from the electrodes caused the cells to behave as if they were the paddle, which taught DishBrain how to return the ball.
According to study lead author Brett Kagan, Chief Scientific Officer of Melbourne-based biotech start-up Cortical Labs, they have demonstrated that they can interact with living biological neurons in such a way that compels them to modify their activity, leading to something that resembles intelligence. Hon Weng Chong, Chief Executive Officer of Cortical Labs, said, DishBrain provides an easier technique to evaluate how the brain functions and acquire insights into crippling illnesses such as epilepsy and dementia. This is the first time that cells have been stimulated systematically and significantly, even though scientists have long been able to put neurons on multi-electrode arrays and read their activity.
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According to Kagan, in the past, models of the brain have been created based on how computer scientists imagine the brain could function. Usually, that is predicated on how they now perceive information technology, like silicon computing. But in reality, Kagan continued, they still don't fully get how the brain functions. Scientists can conduct experiments utilising actual brain function rather than similar inaccurate models like a computer by creating a live model brain out of fundamental building blocks.
For instance, the researchers' next experiment will examine the effects of alcohol on DishBrain. With ethanol, Kagan said, they are essentially attempting to make them "drunk" and see whether they play the game worse, precisely when people drink. According to the experts, this might pave the way for new perspectives on how the brain works. Adeel Razi, director of Monash University's Computational & Systems Neuroscience Laboratory, stated: This new capacity to teach cell cultures to perform a task in which they exhibit sentience by controlling the paddle to return the ball via sensing opens up discovery possibilities which will have far-reaching consequences for technology, health, and society. The results also suggest the prospect of developing a substitute for animal testing when examining how novel medications or gene treatments behave in these complex settings. According to Kagan, "We have also shown that we can adjust the stimulation depending on how the cells alter their behaviour and do it in a closed loop in real-time. (PTI)
Manish Gupta
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