Hybrid Robot Uses Rat Brain

CowboyRobot writes "After two recent stories of artificial brains used to control rats and one about MIT doing the reverse, NYTimes now has a piece on similar work done at Georgia Tech From the article: "...the layer of rat neurons is grown over an array of electrodes that pick up the neurons' electrical activity. A computer analyzes the activity of the several thousand brain cells in real time to detect spikes produced by neurons firing near an electrode." But this time you can buy one for $3,000."

Reminds me of 'Care Dog meets Pee Bear'

[spun]

You remember good old Care Dog, from Care-a-Lot town? If not, take a look at Care Dog meets Pee Bear [subgenius.com] over at the Curch of the Subgenius.

Specifically, the part at the end:

When his body finally died, they used a new machine which could keep his brain alive indefinitely, perhaps even forever. It was hailed as a tremendous medical breakthrough, but Care Dog didn't know he was famous -- for he could neither hear nor see nor smell nor feel, but could only hurt.

Re:This is odd

[LemurShop]

WHAT? CATS AND DOGS? not the cute puppies and the sweet fluffie kitties! Rats are really ugly and icky, you just go ahead son, but not those cute animals that can do silly little human things with their hands oh my. You sir are a monster! An inhuman freak with no respect to cute animals that look nice on peoples houses, uh, i mean nature, and all of god's animals. yeeeeah thats exactly what i mean. Yes, this is off topic. But i might as well vent a little.

One question...

[Tidal Flame]

Does the rat wonder why the f--k it has a robotic body?

This research is not very far along yet...

[wolfneuralnet]

I have seen this guy give a talk every year for 5 years. He always says the same thing "we are close to observing something here." The truth is that no one has a clue whether he will ever see anything in these cultures that is meaningful. These are dissociated cells that are living in a culture dish. The laminar structure that the hippocampus has is destroyed in this process. It would be like throwing a bunch of wires together and hoping to come up with a few logic gates. It is all hype right now. The neurons are not "controlling" the robot at all - the neurons have yet to show any organized activity. Even if they did - would you know what it meant??? I would be very surprised if this ever worked in its current incarnation...

Re:Correction

[tfoss]

yep. thats the problem with all this research....everyone who does it doesnt share their results.

Alright, I call bullshit on this. First off, you are reading about aren't you? They *are* sharing results, and better than that, they are talking to wide circulation general press. This means their research is exposed to an audience greater than the same conference crowd that they run in.

wheres the models for the function reponse of the rat neurons ? the electrical interface to the cells ? the procesedure and problems encountered ?

Well for a first approximation, at least look at the guy's web page [gatech.edu]. Notice the section labeled publications & abstracts. Secondly, if you are actually interested on a real level, talk to the guy. I am sure he would love to talk about his research (thats one thing that always tickles scientists, especially academics).

By the time anyone publishes results its years and progress has already moved on.

Welcome to manuscript writing, submitting, responding to reviews, re-submitting, publishing. It is slow by its very nature. You can't help it, and actually it's a damn good thing, peer-review is what makes science valid and useful. Without that science becomes nothing but bad journalism (remember cold fusion?).

the scientific system should be overhauled methinks.

Ok, what is your suggestion? Until you have an idea how to improve, your bitching is basically meaningless blather.

this research is critical and interesting enough that lots of people would be ahppy to contribute significantly if it was easy to obtain.

Ok, first of all while this research is certainly interesting, good basic research, a good foundation for the future, critical i think not. HIV research, cancer research, public safety research, hell, the stuff my lab [slashdot.org] does are all far, far more critical. As for many people contributing significantly, that can work for open source coding. It's quite different doing science. There is a reason you spend an extra 5 years in grad school after college before you really start contributing to these kinds of topics. They are complex and difficult to understand, they require a great level of scientific understanding and experience. And here's the thing, if it was easy to obtain, then it wouldn't require high-level research to examine it.

a coupla thousand geeks playing with biological-electronic hybrids could do more than a bunch of researchers at a single university or two.

Yeah, right. You've no clue how complex, difficult, and expensive this kind of research is. Have you ever grown neuronal cells? It's quite a bit harder than raising a bunch of sea monkeys. Even supposing you could package a Pocket Pal Rat-brain-cell-silicon-interface system, you still have to have the understanding of what the hell is actually going on. This isn't your high-school science fair project.

High-level research is high-level for a reason. Science is hard.

-Ted

there should be no cruelty of living things..

[Anonymous Coward]

So whats next, cat, dog, chimp, human?
Really guys I like tech as much as anyone, but screwing up living creatures is just bad karma.
Is it not bed enough we eat just every living creature on the planet.