The Brain in A Dish - Rat Brain Controlling Flight Simulator

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/11/02/brain.dish/ 25,000 neurons extracted from a rat brain, and put in a dish with 60 electrodes, formed a neural network in a dish. When linked up to an F-22 jet flight simulator, the brain and the simulator established a two-way connection similar to how neurons receive and interpret signals from each other to control our bodies. Gradually the brain learnt to control the flight of the plane based on the information it received about flight conditions. Funny blog posted that mentioned this: Club Conspiracy The "living computer" was grown from 25,000 neurons extracted from a rat's brain and arranged over a grid of 60 electrodes in a Petri dish. The brain cells then started to reconnect themselves, forming microscopic interconnections, said Thomas DeMarse, professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Florida. "It's essentially a dish with 60 electrodes arranged in a dish at the bottom," explained DeMarse, who designed the study. "Over that we put the living cortical neurons from rats, which rapidly begin to reconnect themselves, forming a living neural network – a brain." While scientists know a lot about the neurons themselves, DeMarse says little is known about how neurons encode information, for example. "We're really working at the basic level," he said, "trying to figure out what sort of computation is going on and how it might be occurring."

• http://www.hoise.com/vmw/04/articles/vmw/LV-VM-11-04-29.html
  • specially designed plate called a multi-electrode array and a common desktop computer
  • When Professor DeMarse first puts the neurons in the dish, they look like little more than grains of sand sprinkled in water. However, individual neurons soon begin to extend microscopic lines toward each other, making connections that represent neural processes. "You see one extend a process, pull it back, extend it out, and it may do that a couple of times, just sampling who's next to it, until over time the connectivity starts to establish itself", he stated. "The brain is getting its network to the point where it's a live computation device."
  • With Jose Principe, a UF distinguished professor of electrical engineering and director of UF's Computational NeuroEngineering Laboratory, Thomas DeMarse has a $500.000 National Science Foundation grant to create a mathematical model that reproduces how the neurons compute.

• "Brain" in Dish Flies Simulated Fighter Jet
  • The 25,000 cells sit atop a grid of 60 electrodes, which is just one and a half millimeters (six-hundredths of an inch) wide.... "These electrodes allow us to literally listen to the 'conversations' among the neurons to find out how they are computing," DeMarse said. "By sending in [~admin:electronic] pulses to each electrode, we can also stimulate the network in 60 different locations."
  • "The neurons will analyze data from the computer, like whether the plane is flying level or is tilted to one side," DeMarse said. "The neurons respond by sending signals to the plane's controls to alter the flight path. New information is sent back to the neurons, creating a feedback system."

    My questions "So you hook it up and the aircraft simply drifts randomly. And as the data comes in, it slowly modifies the (neural) network so over time, the network gradually learns to fly the aircraft." Although the brain currently is able to control the pitch and roll of the simulated aircraft in weather conditions ranging from blue skies to stormy, hurricane-force winds, the underlying goal is a more fundamental understanding of how neurons interact... Said one commentator: But beyond all that, it really can fly that F-22 fighter jet. Or perhaps more accurately, it can keep the aircraft on course in all kinds of weather, acting as an autopilot as it corrects any change in the plane's course. And the brain in the dish learns how to do that in an amazingly short period of time. "Usually, within 10 to 15 minutes, it's pretty much flying the plane," DeMarse says. Why should the neural network "want" to fly the plane level? Anyone who has watched a six year on a car simulator will see how much they love to crash the car simulator! Somehow the feedback loops of letting them play longer, or see new terain, or wanting to go very fast, eventually gets them to spend more time driving than crashing. How does the "brain" get feedback it cares about? In real brains, the feedback is often via "feel-good" hormones.

• About Thomas D. Demarse

• How rat brain neurons control a flight simulator

• http://www.wireheading.com/misc/artificial-brain.html - With list of related articles

• http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/DyeHard/story?id=198839&page=1
  • DeMarse's rat neurons aren't about to take over the universe. In fact, they can't even remember how to fly that aircraft for more than about 15 minutes, so they're no threat.
  • But how do the neurons learn how to fly the thing? That's done by electrical pulses into the dish through one of the electrodes. That in effect tells the neurons when they are doing the right thing to keep the plane on course. High frequency, or rapid pulses, stimulate the neurons and enhance the connections between them.
  • Simply put, by stimulating the neurons the researchers tell them they're on the right track, so they continue to adjust the plane's elevator to keep it from plunging toward the ground during a downdraft, for example. When the plane levels off, the simulator reduces the frequency of the pulses, and the neurons back off from that control surface, allowing the plane to remain on course.
  • It all sounds very complex, but DeMarse says it's actually a very simple experiment, and he hopes to change that. The experiment currently uses only two electrodes to send and receive signals, and the brain of a mammal uses many avenues, or sensors, to do what it has to do to survive.

Other similar experiments and projects

• (Sometimes in 2004 or before) At Georgia Tech, researchers used 2,000 rat brain cells to create what they called a hybrid robot, or Hybrot, part digital computer and part living brain. A researcher at Duke University monitored the brain signals of a monkey as it moved, then used those signals to operate a robotic arm.
• Hugo deGaris, who spearheaded Japan's program to develop the famous robot kitty, and who is now heading a similar project at Utah State University, believes that this century may bring "massively intelligent machines with intellectual capacities many times greater than those of human beings."

Other articles:

• Harvard Brain Bank Faces Shortage of "Normal" Brains
  • Since its founding in 1978, the bank has collected almost 6,000 brains. Every year it receives about 240 diseased brains but only 30 normal brains.
  • The ideal normal brain, according to Benes, comes from an individual without a history of head trauma, seizure, dementia, delirium, or drug or alcohol abuse. This normal tissue serves as a basis for comparison.
  • Harvard Brain Bank