Researchers Grow a Brain In a Dish

Hugh Pickens writes "Dr. Jeffrey H. Toney writes that a team of biomedical engineers at the University of Pittsburgh led by Henry Zeringue have managed to grow an active brain in a dish, complete with memories by culturing brain cells capable of forming networks, complete with biological signals. To produce the models, the Pitt team stamped adhesive proteins onto silicon discs. Once the proteins were cultured and dried, cultured hippocampus cells from embryonic rats were fused to the proteins and then given time to grow and connect to form a natural network. The researchers disabled the cells' inhibitory response and excited the neurons with an electrical pulse which were then able to sustain the resulting burst of network activity for up to what in neuronal time is 12 long seconds compared to the natural duration of .25 seconds. The ability of the brain to hold information 'online' long after an initiating stimulus is a hallmark of brain areas such as the prefrontal cortex. The team will next work to understand the underlying factors that govern network communication and stimulation, such as the various electrical pathways between cells and the genetic makeup of individual cells. 'This is amazing,' writes Toney. 'I wonder what the "memory" could be — could be a good subject for a science fiction story.'"

Comments

Zombies have alternative now

[peter303]

You never know what you'll get in a run-of-the-mill brain. -Igor

Morality

[i_ate_god]

I look forward to reading the moral and philosophical debates that will erupt over the idea of creating a functional brain.

Re:Morality

[Dr. Eggman]

It's hardly a brain and certainly not a complete one. It's more like a (presumably basic) approximation of the neural networks cells in the brain form in order to preserve stimuli. It's less a conscious memory being stored and more the raw sensory input.

They've grown an organic pre-processing buffer.

Re:Morality

[i_ate_god]

I agree, geez, I'm usually Captain Science and Progress before all things Religious, but I wonder if this "brain" was in any way "conscious" for that short period of time? Or am I misunderstanding what was achieved here?

Religion isn't the owner of morality. It's merely a definition of morality.

Re:Morality

[ipwndk]

It is too simple to have had a consciousness. The article reads that it contained only 40-60 neurons.

Have a look at the animals here, to get an idea of the number of neurons required for various levels of intelligence.

The definition of conscience is as far as I'm also vague as to whether that is intelligence like a humans, an intelligence on the level of a human, or an intelligence on the level of animals. I mean for example that several animals like for example Elephants are self-aware and emotional creatures. You can find many other examples.

What you had was however a very simply living being, that to a very limited degree had thought ;) I don't think it is wrong to either create it, or destroy it, not at this level of intelligence. It would have to have intelligence above that of insects before I would have problems against its destruction, but not its creation. Becomes problematic then; you're creating advanced life, can you then simply kill every failed experiment?

Personally I think research must be done until we not only create intelligent life on the level of our own, in whatever medium, hardware or software, and other intelligence that is equal in level but alien in function. How else will we truly learn to understand what intelligence is?

Re:Morality

[AxemRed]

It's more like a set of rules meant to apply some people's version of morality to others. I don't know that you could really call it morality if the only thing stopping you from cheating on your wife is that you are told that God wouldn't like it.

And a little bit closer

[JoshuaZ]

We're getting closer and closer to really understanding how the brain works. Being able to actually make small networks in the lab is a pretty big deal. When we really start understanding this we'll be able to start doing the really cool stuff, like genetically modifying people to increase intelligence and adding direct computer interfaces. At the same time, this research shows that we have a long way to go before we get to that point, in that there's a lot happening with these cells that was unexpected and adds to the long list of things about the brain and neurons that we don't understand.

My guess

[Dachannien]

'I wonder what the "memory" could be â" could be a good subject for a science fiction story.'

Considering that they had just jolted it with a pulse of electricity, my guess would be, "OMFGTURNITOFFTURNITOFF!!!"

Re:Finally! A way to distract the zombies!

[eexaa]

Zombies won't eat genetically modified brain when they can choose bio-friendly products.

This just proves...

[mschaffer]

This just proves that you can make a dish smarter.
Let me know when they can actually make my smartphone smarter.

Brain Thoughts

[Yvan256]

According to the brain, "The first ten minutes were the worst, and the second ten minutes, they were the worst too. The third ten minutes I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline." Apparently, the best conversation he'd had was over 40 minutes ago, and that was with a coffee machine.

It's an old story

[Anonymous Coward]

Goethe, wrote the Faust story most of us are familiar with. He also wrote a second part. In part 2 there is a homunculus, which is basically a mind that floats around in a test tube. He spends a lot of time wondering why he exists and if, indeed, he should exist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faust:_The_Second_Part_of_the_Tragedy

I am guessing that, if we do create conscious minds in a test tube, those minds will suffer a lot of angst. Maybe even the majority of our thinking processes are moderated by our physical limitations and by our hormones. Could we live in a test tube without going insane?

Re:It's an old story

[jd]

I dunno. I try to stay clear of the people who apparently do live in test tubes.

Re:It's an old story

[Rogue Haggis Landing]

I am guessing that, if we do create conscious minds in a test tube, those minds will suffer a lot of angst. Maybe even the majority of our thinking processes are moderated by our physical limitations and by our hormones. Could we live in a test tube without going insane?

If we could precisely replicate a human brain and grow it in a jar and didn't somehow give it an artificial world to inhabit -- a robotic body, the Matrix, anything -- it would be profoundly non-functional. Angst wouldn't come into it, insanity wouldn't come into it. It wouldn't become nearly clever enough to go insane. Consider what happens with a so-called "feral" child, usually a kid raised in profound isolation, like being locked in a closet or something. That child at least has sensory inputs, has some control of a body, has experienced eating and breathing, and on and on. And yet even when given good care later in life they very rarely learn to walk correctly, become toilet trained, understand basic human expressions, and so on. They barely function as humans. Now imagine a brain with no sensory inputs at all, maybe at most nervous sensations of whatever growth fluid it is suspended in, along with the occasional jolts of electricity sent by the researchers. Would it even be able to think in a way we'd remotely call human? It would have no purchase on anything with which to build a concept of the world, of anything, even of how to go about the process of thinking. It would be a hunk of meat with a few interesting capabilities.

Quantum Leap - this already *was* used in sci-fi!

[johnthorensen]

In the television show Quantum Leap, the main character Sam is 'guided' by Al who uses a sentient supercomputer named Ziggy. If I remember correctly, Ziggy was a project that Sam was involved in which melded human neural cells with silicon to create a super-awesome computer capable of computing probabilities and helping Sam figure out what to do next.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Quantum_Leap

Re:Finally! A way to distract the zombies!

[GNious]

Zombies won't eat genetically modified brain when they can choose bio-friendly products.

So Americans would be safe then.

(*auch*)

The memory?

[argStyopa]

It is a being with no functional understanding of the real world...only internalized ideals of what it thinks the world should be.

It has no history, no knowledge of what went before. It lives in the now, with choices driven entirely by impulse.

It is a being of pure ego, with the only thing it cares about being its own needs.

I don't know what it is, but I'm pretty certain it would vote Democrat.

Old slang

[PPH]

"Dish" is old school slang. Nowadays we call them blonds.

And I'm skeptical about some scientists claim to grow brains in them.

Re:Finally! A way to distract the zombies!

[SnarfQuest]

I hate Seattle zombies.

They always want their brains to be frappied or run through a cat first.

for everyone wondering what it was 'thinking'...

[Sprouticus]

it had no sensory input, no history, nothing. If any actual 'thoughts' went on in the rat brain cells they would resemble nothing like what we think of as thought.