Chinese scientists from Tianjin University and Southern University of Science and Technology have managed to create a robot that works with an artificial brain that has been grown in a laboratory. They have integrated robotics and biology attachment of brain organoid to … a mini brain derived from human stem cells to the electrode chip, as reported by Ming Dong, Vice President of Tianjin University, for ‘Science and Technology Daily’. This gives the brain organoid the ability perceive the world through electronic signals.
Getting a robot that learns different progressively more complex tasks, such as grabbing objects, tracking targets, or avoiding obstacles. Its creators describe it as, according to the South China Morning Post “the world’s first open intelligent brain-on-a-chip interaction system with complex information”. Tianjin University believes this project could potentially lead to the development of hybrid human-robotic intelligence.
Main components of brain-on-chip technology
Tianjin University
Goals and challenges
This open source system is called MetaBOC (BOC is brain-on-chip in English) and it is heading into the future mimic the brain and be more efficient than the most advanced computers to date. In fact, according to “Science Alert”, compared to the consumption of artificial intelligence GPT-3, the human mind works 86 billion neurons consume only 0.3 kilowatts per hour. Meritorious work in bioinformatics is becoming increasingly recognized. And for the Chinese researchers, these are their first steps, the idea being to continue their goal transplant human brain cells into artificial bodies.
In the “New Atlas” they point out that the possibilities of bioinformatics are opening up to the extent that our neurons perceive the world and act in it in the same language as computers, i.e. using electrical signals. “And human brain cells, grown in bulk on silicon chips, can receive electrical signals from a computer, try to interpret them and respond,” they say.
However, there are a number of challenges to overcome in this process improve the ability to keep organelles alive As much time as possible. This means keeping them at the right temperature, hydrated, with enough food and safe from germs.
And it should be clarified that despite the fact that some images provided by Chinese scientists themselves have gone viral. These representations actually correspond “demonstration diagrams of future application scenarios”.
Point
Specifically, these brain organoids are derived from human pluripotent stem cells. To put it simply, it is somewhat complicated, but generally they are cells that are normally found in early embryos. These can give rise to various tissues in the body, such as neuronal tissues.
In their study published in the journal Brain Oxford University Press, scientists from Tianjin University explain that when these cells are grafted into the brain, can establish a functional connection with the host’s brain. So this remarkable move also shows several possibilities.
Various applications
The team of scientists says in their paper that they have developed a technique that can be used low-intensity ultrasound to help the organoids integrate better in the host brain. This means, as the paper points out, that this technique could lead to new treatments for neurodevelopmental disorders and repair of damage to the cerebral cortex. “Brain organoid transplants are considered a promising strategy restore brain function by replacing lost neurons and remodeling of neural circuits,” the team says.
They verified this in mice with microcephaly, a congenital disorder in which the head is much smaller than normal. With ultrasound treatment, they found that his neuropathological defects had improved.
In addition, this non-invasive, low-intensity ultrasound treatment would also be useful for computer work would favor the formation and maturation of neural networks.
Other projects
In the field of bioinformatics, a project is worth mentioning DishBrain from Monash University in Australia in 2022. Scientists have grown 800,000 brain cells on a chip. They then placed them in a simulated environment and saw how, through The electrical signals emitted by the electrodes of the plate they lived in caused them to “missile strike”. In this way, they learned to play virtual ping pong in just five minutes. And the researchers observed that the more they played, the better they achieved in the game. The project received funding from the Australian Army and spawned the company Cortical Labs.
Other more recent projects were the one presented by the Swiss company FinalSpark 16 mini brains grown in the laboratory from interface-integrated human neural stem cells. Be able to learn and process information. Or the case of research that connected neurons to electrical circuits to create a device capable of recognizing voice. And in the specific field of robots, it was recently Japanese scientists They grafted living human skin onto the robot’s face to improve its ability to express emotions more realistically.
Brett Kagan, chief scientific officer at Cortical Labs, told New Atlas that even at an early stage, it appears that biocomputers enhanced by human neurons learn much faster and consume much less energythan today’s artificial intelligence machine learning chips, while demonstrating “more intuition, knowledge and creativity.” And he added: “Biological systems in their most basic form as they exist today continue to outperform the best deep learning algorithms that humans have created. It’s pretty amazing«.
This work, which we’re talking about now as we try to make silicon chips obsolete as we traditionally understand them, also suggests that biocomputing is going from strength to strength. And until China has become one of its priorities.
