Scientists Couple Nerve Tissues With Computer Chip 92
patiwat writes "Recalling Ghost in the Shell, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried have coupled living brain tissue to a semiconductor chip. This technique involves culturing razor-thin slices of the hippocampus region on the chip, enabling them to record neural communication between thousands of nerve cells in the brain tissue slice. The hippocampus is associated with temporary storage of memory. Employing the new technique, the scientists working under the direction of Peter Fromherz were able to visualize the influence of pharmaceutical compounds on the neural network, making the 'brainchip' an exciting test bed for neuropharmaceutical research, with potential for further development in neurochip prosthetics and neurocomputation. The researchers reported this news in the online edition of the Journal of Neurophysiology (May 10, 2006)."
Neural Joint? (Score:1, Troll)
Let's get a couple of jokes out of the way (Score:2, Funny)
Anyway I for one welcome our living hyppocampus-sliced brainchip overlords.
Re:Let's get a couple of jokes out of the way (Score:1)
Re:Let's get a couple of jokes out of the way (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Let's get a couple of jokes out of the way (Score:2)
Re:Let's get a couple of jokes out of the way (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Let's get a couple of jokes out of the way (Score:1)
Re:Let's get a couple of jokes out of the way (Score:1)
cool stuff but not new (Score:5, Informative)
A neuron-silicon junction: a Retzius cell of the leech on an insulated-gate field-effect transistor.
Science. 1991 May 31;252(5010):1290-3.
pdf [sciencemag.org]
All the same, it is an interesting field, but don't let this post lead you to believe that he (and others) haven't already been doing this for 15 years.
Re:cool stuff but not new (Score:3, Funny)
I know what you're thinking... (Score:1, Funny)
Rambling, rambling, rambling (Score:4, Funny)
Unfortunately, I've never persevered long enough with the addition to see if any fusing occurs, though I have a feeling that there wouldn't be too much improvement due to the inherent sluggishness of my general brain design, causing any information passed from silicon to brain to be so slow as to make any improvement virtually unnoticeable.
I think I probably need to get a faster bus speed, maybe the 42 would be a better choice.
Re:cool stuff but not new (Score:1)
Re:cool stuff but not new (Score:1)
Repair my brain? (Score:5, Funny)
Resistance is futile!
Re:Repair my brain? (Score:4, Interesting)
1. This means at some point we'll be able to control electronics with our brain.
2. This means at some point electronics will be able to control us.
I/O is a funny thing like that. Who is telling who what to do?
Re:Repair my brain? (Score:1)
Re:Repair my brain? (Score:1)
1. This means at some point we'll be able to control electronics with our brain.
2. This means at some point electronics will be able to control us.
Dont worry, your brain will be under influence of DRM and IP of your government.
Re:Repair my brain? (Score:5, Insightful)
1. This means at some point we'll be able to control electronics with our brain.
2. This means at some point electronics will be able to control us.
I/O is a funny thing like that. Who is telling who what to do?
Don't forget the 3 barriers for spyware neurosoftware:
- Turn on your neurofirewall
- Have your anti-neurovirus resident protection on (makes you think three times slower, but you're at least safe)
- Always keep the cyber-implants up to date with Automatic Updates on to protect from exploits floating in the wi-max connection around you
- and always#@f...po4j...0sok
- Oh, yes. Don't forget to vote for Bush Jr. Jr. on the upcoming elections.
Re:Repair my brain? (Score:2)
So now I'll be waiting for a distro called NeuroLinux. Or Neurinux.
As if Gentoo doesn't sound funny enough.
Re:Repair my brain? (Score:1)
Re:Repair my brain? (Score:2)
At least the programming language we'll have to use is already available.
I, for one, welcome our new Brainfuck-hacking overlords.
Re:Repair my brain? (Score:1)
Re:Repair my brain? (Score:2)
Presuming any of what you say has any bearing at all (we'd all have to be networked in the head!), then the solution is quite simple:
Don't operate yourself as root, and for god's sakes man, don't go giving out shell accounts in your noggin!
Sudo if you must, but always run from userland, and just have kind of a fuzzy bearing of everything that's going on around you, but don't operate in a way that you can actua
Re:Repair my brain? (Score:3, Insightful)
Presuming any of what you say has any bearing at all (we'd all have to be networked in the head!)
1986:
Presuming any of what you say has any bearing at all (we'd all have to be networked via tiny boxes we carry in our pockets we'll call "cellphones")
Re:Repair my brain? (Score:2)
Re:Repair my brain? (Score:1)
1. This means at some point we'll be able to control electronics with our brain.
2. This means at some point electronics will be able to control us.
I/O is a funny thing like that. Who is telling who what to do?"
And who controls your brain now?
Why do you smoke? Drink alcohol, do drugs? Become obese? Vote Bush?
With electronics in our brain, for the first time we might actually be able to take control of our life
Re:Repair my brain? (Score:1)
Re:Repair my brain? (Score:2)
I don think this will lead to major changes (Score:1)
Re:I don think this will lead to major changes (Score:1)
artificial brains.. (Score:1)
How do they keep the cells alive?.. The silicon must be exposed. Here comes AI & math processor brain implant.
On another note, computer simulated neurons are great at recognising patterns and solving problems. Most character recognition software was based on neuron fuzzy logic
Re:artificial brains.. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:artificial brains.. (Score:2)
I wasn't referring to the Ghost in the Shell AIs, but rather to one of the first few pages in the original manga, which described one of the first interfaces between a silicon chip and neurons.
Wow, that's lucky ... (Score:1)
Whooooaa ! [imdb.com]
I'm just waiting.... (Score:2)
Re:I'm just waiting.... (Score:2)
Re:I'm just waiting.... (Score:2)
IANAP but isn't the Universe one big "qomputer"? Since you are part of the Universe......is "quantum computer cluster" a euphemisim for group sex? ASL?
Alzheimer's Disease (Score:2)
I'll read TFA in detail tomorrow...
Re:Alzheimer's Disease (Score:2)
Moderator? (Score:2)
Brains on a chip (Score:4, Funny)
makes for good eatin too!
Re:Brains on a chip (Score:2)
Re:Brains on a chip (Score:2)
Fish and chips... brain and chips... yeah, I guess that'll work.
Not *that* great for pharmaceutical research. (Score:5, Informative)
True, it is a significant step in terms of scale and they way they have overcome the interfacing problems *and* maintain the culture medium is pretty snazzy. But...
Exciting testbed for pharmaceutical research? Nah!
Setting aside the fact that it's not human tissue; the interactions between neurons is massively complex. The culture medium (which keeps the cells alive) is, by necessity not anything like the infrastructure which keeps the cells alive in a living organism, so it will interfere with many of the more subtle interactions. And those subtle interactions make all the difference when it comes to developing drugs.
It's still interesting and a good step in the right direction but they overhyped it. Someone is looking for more grant money.
Disclaimer: Yes, I *am* a biochemist.
Re:Not *that* great for pharmaceutical research. (Score:2)
The editors would not have published it if it wasn't leading edge, accurate, and reproducable.
As for who is doing the hyping, the story's submitter had an MIT address. At least on the surface, I don't see any grounds for calling this 'academic astroturf.'
Re:Not *that* great for pharmaceutical research. (Score:1)
Project for blind people (Score:2, Informative)
That was the most incredible project I heard from about neurotechnology in the past years. Here is the link in french and english to that lab :
http://www.polystim.ca/ [polystim.ca]
Re:Project for blind people (Score:1)
One of these things just called... (Score:2, Funny)
Hello... (Score:5, Funny)
Then:
Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator - and vanished. He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that are not his own, and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on his journey is Al, an observer from his own time who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so, Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hopin g each time that his next leap will be the leap home.
Hopefully, before he gets home, he'll leap into someone around my teenaged self and teach him/me about girls, and then I'll never have been able to type that from memory.
Re:Hello... (Score:2)
Re:Hello... (Score:2)
(This, of course, assumes he has an infinite lifespan.)
(And yes, I did remember the final episode, but I'm one of those people to whom Quantum Leap: Prelude [amazon.com] is dedicated; those who believe he will return home. Oh yes, I am a QL fanboy.)
Re:Hello... (Score:2)
I think it sucks too, but by putting that word in there, they've shut the door firm on any possibility.
Re:Hello... (Score:2)
But, it does seem they have a workaround in place for extending the series - Sam's daughter (sired in the three-parter) tries to find her father.
Whether or not it actually gets made is another story. Apparently SciFi commissioned a miniseries on the premise after the BG miniseries was a hit, but nothing seems to have come of it.
Re:Hello... (Score:1)
Well... seeing as how his body was physicaly leaping from place to place he must age and will die of old age... lets say he lives a maximum of 80 years after he starts leaping... ... given that ther
80 years =~29,200 days
if he leaps every 2 days on average then he'll make ~14,500 leaps spread over the times in which he can leap ( his own life time ) which was what? 35 years?
so
Re:Hello... (Score:2)
They played fast and loose with this rule, as the mood struck them. I remember the leap in question (Season 5, special guest star: Jennifer Aniston, pre-Friends), but there was a leap in one of the earlier season where he leapt into a pregnant woman and there was concern that Sam would have to
Re:Hello... (Score:2)
Re:Hello... (Score:2)
He had those problems the first time, but the second time he leapt in, he was much too concerned with the doings of the Evil Leaper to be affected.
Neurocomputation means Artificial Intelligence. (Score:1, Interesting)
Standards in Artificial Intelligence [blogcharm.com] include hybrids of neural biology and computer hardware -- where neuro-chips integrate neuronal tissue with a silicon surface.
Our Neurofuture [blogspot.com] ranges now from enhancement of the human brain-mind to a Vulcan mind-meld of brain and machine.
A Theory of Cognitivity [visitware.com] explains how to build the artificial minds of the future -- whether housed in computers or in these new hybrids of chip and nerve-cell.
Primitive AI Engines [sourceforge.net] already exist and need only rapid prototyping
Obligatory (Score:2)
Brain slice experiments scary as hell (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Brain slice experiments scary as hell (Score:2)
Creating a mind by chopping up a brain this way is so far away in the future, and so unlikely to even be feasible, that it's not worth wasting your time. The brain works by having both local chemistry and 3-D c
Re:Brain slice experiments scary as hell (Score:1)
Most definitely! Experimentation no holds barred would cause advancement many years faster than our current pace. We need medical advancement in neurological fields badly.
I'd love to see how it all turns out, but getting there without brave volunteers and an experimental kill switch is just frightening. I guess it comes down to if you would feel brave enough to donate your brain for such scientific experimentation or really feel safe that the 'soul' has already left so t
Re:Brain slice experiments scary as hell (Score:1)
Debug my brain! (Score:3, Funny)
Now I can find out what I was *really* thinking when I bought that El Camino on Ebay!
What if...? (Score:1)
Re:What if...? (Score:2)
The obligatory SMAC quote (Score:1)
--Commissioner Pravin Lal
"Man and Machine"
Tell me (Score:2)
I wonder if there is hope for my damaged optic ner (Score:1)
hmm... (Score:1)
As the post says (Score:1)
Well actually, it started when I first started seeing city-wide wireless internet, and then Rhode Island wants state-wide wireless [freepress.net]...
Anyway, I wholeheartedly recommend every single person that reads this to read GitS (if you haven't already). It not only shows where exactly the world will be in a few years, but also give a good idea as to the risks of humans having pooters implanted into their brains
Greyware (Score:1)
As with any technology, quite fascinating, and scary!