Scientists Couple Nerve Tissues With Computer Chip

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)."

Comments

cool stuff but not new

[frilledren]

I work in neuroscience, and Fromherz has been doing this for a long time:
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
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.

Repair my brain?

[RocketRainbow]

Hooray! Now there seems a real chance that one day doctors will be able to graft one of those whatsits onto the prefrontal thingey and cure my attention something something disorder!

Resistance is futile!

Re:Repair my brain?

[numbski]

I know you're trying to be funny, but the first thoughts that come to my mind when I saw this were:

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?

[suv4x4]

I know you're trying to be funny, but the first thoughts that come to my mind when I saw this were:

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 .... just a moment I have to reboot, something weird going on

- Oh, yes. Don't forget to vote for Bush Jr. Jr. on the upcoming elections.

Re:Let's get a couple of jokes out of the way

[nbannerman]

Y'know, I've been accused of thinking with something before, but never my hand...

Brains on a chip

[SlashSquatch]

makes for good eatin too!

Not *that* great for pharmaceutical research.

[Cicero382]

I always worry when these kinds of press releases come out. They always overdo it and spoil the impact.

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.

Rambling, rambling, rambling

[frankthechicken]

I'm really clumsy, and I've being doing this accidentally for years. Barely a month goes by before I trip over a stray power chord and have motherboards protruding from my forehead.

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.

Hello...

[proverbialcow]

Dr. Sam Beckett did this back in 1996. He used these circuits to create a senient computer named Ziggy, who in turn helped him design a time travel machine.

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.

Debug my brain!

[dashersey]

Finally, a debugger for the Brain!

Now I can find out what I was *really* thinking when I bought that El Camino on Ebay!