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Scientists Restore Lost Brain Function In Rat With Synthetic Device
V!NCENT writes with news that researchers at Tel Aviv University have replaced a synaptic microcircuit inside a rat's cerebellum with a fully synthetic version, while maintaining proper functioning. The targeted area of the rat's brain involved its ability to blink its eyes in response to particular stimuli. "To test the chip, they anesthetized a rat and disabled its cerebellum before hooking up their synthetic version. They then tried to teach the anesthetized animal a conditioned motor reflex — a blink — by combining an auditory tone with a puff of air on the eye, until the animal blinked on hearing the tone alone. They first tried this without the chip connected, and found the rat was unable to learn the motor reflex. But once the artificial cerebellum was connected, the rat behaved as a normal animal would, learning to connect the sound with the need to blink." Study author Matti Mintz said of the work, "It's proof of concept that we can record information from the brain, analyze it in a way similar to the biological network, and return it to the brain."
I know kung fu.
I have an AVM in my left cerebellum. Could use a workaround.
"Are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
"I think so, Brain, but it's hard to concentrate when this bloody machine keeps puffing air into my eye. NARF!"
I for one welcome our new cybernetic rat overlords!
I sometimes ask revealing, often ignorant-seeming questions. Maybe they're harder to answer than you think.
This is the beginning of the singularity. Hopefully this mean we will be ready for hard takeoff if it comes.
I mean, rat's are cheap. If its brain functions are going bad, get a new rat. This is what is wrong with science, they have no clue as to real world problems.
Geez.
Please provide instructions for overclocking mine for superhero style motor reflexes.
Pinky: Gee Brain, what do you want to do tonight?
Brain: Same thing we do every night. Try to take over the world.
So, any chance of restoring the lost brain function of tea partiers?
Or did they program him not to be able to tell?
...and the AI sufficiently advanced to consider us as rats and do the same thing to us.
See "Interface", by 'Stephen Bury'. Great SF novel about the first remote-controlled president of the United States of America.
Because living within your means shows a clear lack of brain function...
Steven Bury = Neal Stephenson
How many of you blinked consciously while reading this?
This article has been posted on Slashdot for a little over two hours now, and only has about thirty comments.
I can interpret these facts in a few different ways:
a. There is a technical difficulty preventing users from posting.
b. It's dinner time in America, and everyone is busy eating.
c. Slashdot is dead, and no one posts here anymore.
d. The article is simply not interesting.
e. Utter shock, because this is it, people.
I'm going to go with choice "e". Not because it is Euler's Number, but because all but all but "b" are somewhat disproven, open handed, and because "b" is fairly irrelevant on the internet. ...and now it's time to Godwin this shit. Look, everyone. The Russians saved Hitler's brain. We know this. Apropos that Israelis were responsible for enabling this technology, but now I think it's safe to say that it's only a matter of time before someone absconds with it, and ressurects Der Fuhrer, and we are afflicted by an unstoppable, unkillable cybernetic antichrist.
Good God. What hath Science wrought?!
I like the fact that Dr. Sepulveda was doing this reasearch; maybe that's what the Darwinians are, spare rat cerebellums...
If it works on humans, maybe we can restore the brain function of those of us still dumb enough to waste time on Slashdot.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
That I've rebooted my cerebellum
Gonna get my PhD....
Recovered from lobotomy!
sig not found
more jew bullshit.
You got Einstein plagiarized the wrong theory, now this.
Hey dummy any preschooler is smart enough to know that if a country is having economic problems then all you have to do is print a bunch of money and hand it out.
You teabaggers are all the same, dumber than a preschooler!
"No, no," said Frankie, "it's the brain we want to buy."
"What!"
"Well, who would miss it?" inquired Benjy.
"I thought you said you could just read his brain electronically," protested Ford.
"Oh yes," said Frankie, "but we'd have to get it out first. It's got to be prepared."
"Treated," said Benjy.
"Diced."
"Thank you," shouted Arthur, tipping up his chair and backing away from the table in horror.
"It could always be replaced," said Benjy reasonably, "if you think it's important.
"Yes, an electronic brain," said Frankie, "a simple one would suffice."
"A simple one!" wailed Arthur.
"Yeah," said Zaphod with a sudden evil grin, "you'd just have to program it to say What? and I don't understand and Where's the tea? Who'd know the difference?"
"What?" cried Arthur, backing away still farther.
"See what I mean?" said Zaphod, and howled with pain because of something that Trillian did at that moment.
"I'd notice the difference," said Arthur.
"No, you wouldn't," said Frankie mouse, "you'd be programmed not to."
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
If bits of the brain can be mapped and replaced at the lowest level (eventually) you'd end up with being able to communicate with a brain at the lowest level by not removing the old bits, but leaving the new bits alongside them, monitoring and sending information with them. A Shirow-style "cyberbrain" from "Ghost in the Shell".
Since my Dad and his father had Alzheimers or dementia, and my Mom was prone to strokes, I'm hoping to live long to use (and have enough neurons left to appreciate using) something like this technology.
By the taping of my glasses, something geeky this way passes
What would happen if such a chip had an access violation? It could be a fatal error. Or would a segmentation fault cause a splitting headache?
"I never asked for this".
The cool thing about the human brain implants is that it lets your controllers actually read your thoughts. It's kind of like how an Android smartphone backs up your contacts to Gmail, except in this case it's backing your neurological data like thoughts and sensory data to the government.
If you would like to be a beta tester go to http://www.petermcwilliams.info/neurotechnological-mind-control
The obvious market for these is politicians. They are damn expensive for the society and if you can restore brain functions even to one of them the savings could be massive...
I've been ataxic for 5 years because of a damaged cerebellum and every day I wish I wasn't. Things like this present the only possibility that I could ever have unimpaired movement again but this is just a small experiment that's unlikely to be practically realized within my lifetime. So good news for people that end up with damaged cerebellums in the future.
Every day replace some brain cells in a human. Take five or six years, and replace every cell he/she has. At what point does this become artificial intelligence? Would the consciousness of said person survive the transition? If you succeeded, would an exact copy of the result also be conscious? I don't think I'd volunteer, but I'm sure someone would.
On the one hand you take life too seriously, and on the other, you do not take playful existence seriously enough. Seth
I gotta have one of these for my so called brain
All your brains are belong to us.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
... how much did it cost you?
Well, the rat only cost $9.95. It's the after-market mod-kit that was a killer at $5,999,999.95.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars