One after another, surprising information is emerging about the human brain. Scientists have shown that brain cells grown in the laboratory can spontaneously play video games.
Australia’s biotech startup ‘Cortical Labs’ has made such a world of science fiction a reality. Cortical Labs Chief Scientific Officer Brett Kagan and his team recently published this research in the journal Neuron.
Their research shows that human and rat brain cells grown in the laboratory are able to ‘spontaneously’ play the once-evoking video game ‘Pong’. Pong was one of the first video games to hit the market in 1972.
Here a paddle on the screen is moved up and down to try to keep the ball in the center of the screen as much as possible. Each time one competitor fails to put the ball on the paddle, the other gets a point.
Brett Kagan’s team connected a computer to about 800,000 brain cells on several rows of electrodes. They named this system ‘DishBrain’. These electrodes are able to receive stimulation of the brain cells and send stimulation to the cells.
Now in computer video games, a signal of the position of the paddle and the ball is sent to the brain cells and the feedback of the brain is observed. At first, a stimulation of the brain cells randomly moving the paddle without aiming for the ball to hit or miss the paddle.
However, this research is a unique step in connecting the physical and biological worlds. Scientists are also seeing the potential for a breakthrough in technology by testing the effectiveness of various drugs and combining the power of brain cells with silicon.