Hybrid Robot Uses Rat Brain 254
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."
karma whore (Score:4, Informative)
By ANNE EISENBERG
The nerve center of a conventional robot is a microprocessor of silicon and metal. But for a robot under development at Georgia Tech, commands are relayed by 2,000 or so cells from a rat's brain.
A group led by a university researcher has created a part mechanical, part biological robot that operates on the basis of the neural activity of rat brain cells grown in a dish. The neural signals are analyzed by a computer that looks for patterns emitted by the brain cells and then translates those patterns into robotic movement. If the neurons fire a certain way, for example, the robot's right wheel rotates once.
The leader of the group, Steve M. Potter, a professor in the Laboratory for Neuroengineering at Georgia Tech, calls his creation a Hybrot, short for hybrid robot.
"It's very much a symbiosis," he said, "a digital computer and a living neural network working together."
Dr. Potter has been building the system of hardware, software, incubators and rat neurons that constitute the Hybrot since 1993, when he was a postdoctoral student at the California Institute of Technology. He and his group have not only introduced the neurons to the world outside their dish; the team has also closely monitored minute changes that take place in the shape and connections of the neurons as they are stimulated, using techniques like time-lapse photography and laser imaging.
Dr. Potter hopes that close observation of how brain cells behave as they are exposed to a world of sensation will help researchers understand the way small groups of neurons go about learning. "If the network begins to get better at a job," he said, "we will watch what changed within the network to allow it to do that."
Dr. Jonathan Wolpaw, laboratory chief and professor of neuroscience at the Wadsworth Center of the New York State Department of Health and the State University of New York at Albany, said that Dr. Potter's research could yield a simple system for exploring the capacity of neurons and circuits to change based on incoming activity.
"These changes could be analogues of what happens in learning," Dr. Wolpaw said. "You are dealing with neurons, the same tissue as in a brain," although in a different setting and with different circuitry. "Some things presumably are in common, for example, the neuron's capacity for plasticity," he said.
In Dr. Potter's hybrid system, 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.
A silver three-wheeled model of the robot is commercially available through the Swiss robotics maker K-Team (www.k-team.com) for about $3,000 and is about the size of a hockey puck. It trundles along at a top speed of one meter per second.
"We assign a direction of movement, say, a step forward, that is automatically triggered by a pattern of spikes," said Thomas DeMarse, a former member of Dr. Potter's group who is an assistant professor in the department of biomedical engineering at the University of Florida. "Twenty of these patterns, for instance, means 20 rotations of the wheel."
As the robot moves, it functions as a sensory system, delivering feedback to the neurons through the electrodes. For example, Mr. DeMarse said, the robot has sensors for light and feeds electrical signals proportional to the light back to the electrodes. "We return information to the dish on the intensity of light as the robot gets closer and the light gets brighter."
The researchers monitor the activity of the neurons for new signals and new connections. Dr. Potter said that the feedback mechanism was crucial to the functioning of the neural network. In traditional, isolated cultured networks, he said, in which neurons are not connected to a body, the activity patterns of the neurons are la
Re:karma whore (Score:5, Funny)
Matrix (Score:2)
Re:karma whore (Score:2)
Cross thread reference (Score:2)
In the words of Captain Picard (Score:5, Funny)
Re:karma whore (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:karma whore (Score:2, Funny)
Guess this will bring an all new meaning to the phrase:
"Behold! The power of cheese."
Human brains (Score:1)
Until the /. effect happens (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Human brains (Score:2)
Re:Human brains (Score:3, Funny)
Who are "they", and why would they bother spending the money on remote-control when they can just lawsuit- and reality-TV- us into submission?
Hmmm... (Score:1, Funny)
Correction (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Correction (Score:2, Interesting)
By the time anyone publishes results its years and progress has already moved on. the scientific system should be overhauled methinks. this research is critical and interesting enough that lots of people would be ahppy to contribute significantly if it was easy to obt
Re:Correction (Score:5, Insightful)
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
Science loves the net (Score:2)
Blogs are spawning online science journals... medical information wants to be free
Re:Science loves the net (Score:2)
I agree, the net is allowing communication to occur on a much better level than before. Things that were difficult or impossible before are now easy and commonplace. I am not suggesting the net is *bad* for research.
Seriously, if the scientific community could be completely open about things, such as say AIDS... a global open net discussion might come
Re:Correction (Score:2)
"Expertise is difficult to acquire. Those who do not have an expertise think it's easy to become and expert, and have no respect for the real experts." -Howard Schechter
Regardless of my intelligence, I know the kind of research these people are doing is beyond my training.
Now, if they need a SQL Server Administrator I can do quite a bit to help them.
Re:Correction (Score:2, Funny)
******L4M3RZ: w00t
-=[HAXX0R]=-: oh it died
penguin brain? (Score:2)
I can't seem to remember if anyone in The Golden Compass trilogy had a penguin for a daemon, though I suspect Linux has been ported the alethiometer platform.
Re:penguin brain? (Score:2)
Re:Correction (Score:3, Funny)
You could always use a couple of thousand of your own brain cells
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Re:Correction (Score:2)
Why is it always rats? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Why is it always rats? (Score:2)
Re:Why is it always rats? (Score:2)
Re:Why is it always rats? (Score:2)
Cool (Score:1)
Does this remind anyone else of the Simpsons episode where they go to Itchy and Scratchy Land?
Artificial retina (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Artificial retina (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Artificial voicebox (Score:2)
Re:Artificial retina (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Artificial retina (Score:3, Interesting)
karma whoreing (Score:2)
Re:Artificial retina (Score:2)
MEA's........I assume you mean multi electrode arrays?
Very interesting work to understand what processing occurs at the level of the retina.
We are RC members of ARVO. Retinal circuitry and function is what we do normally. However, in the last two years, we have been working in retinal degeneration and exploring what happens to the neural retina.
Your right, however, that the vision prosthetics are a long way off..
Pe
Put the rat in the iron! (Score:5, Funny)
Who knew they were transplanting rat brains into aibo robot dogs!
Back in the day, we used to talk about robots. But for us, it was always a frightening thing. Then saturday night live did a commercial about robots stealing our medicine! Believe you me, THAT had me scared for a while! I know it was satire, but it's not hard to imagine robots living off the powerful medicines we old people use!
Re:Put the rat in the iron! (Score:1)
Oh no! You missed the warning at the end, that people denying the existence of robots may themselves be robots. They've been lying to us, time to ruuuuunnn!
Revenge of the Lab Rats (Score:5, Funny)
I don't want to be around when this thing becomes aware enough to take retribution for countless generations of lab rat torture! Someone will stumble into the lab and find a scientist's brain wired into a speak-n-spell, with a rat-bot-shaped hole in the wall and a trail of cheese crumbs...
Re:Revenge of the Lab Rats (Score:1)
Armed by military lasers and automatic guns.
Re:Revenge of the Lab Rats (Score:2)
Or how about a "rabbot" shaped hole in the wall of a lab? This post reeks of a ripoff of the pilot episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
Obligatory Penny Arcade (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2002-0
how soon... (Score:1, Funny)
I think it'd be perfect (aka simple minded).
Quick (Score:1)
The rats name isn't... (Score:1)
Reminds me of 'Care Dog meets Pee Bear' (Score:3, Insightful)
Specifically, the part at the end:
This is odd (Score:2, Interesting)
- Isn't this rat brain interfacing business just a clever way of saying "ahem, moving right along" after decades of general-purpose AI research failure ?
- What the hell do these people target rats that much ? don't mice do the trick too ? or cats or dogs ? Some years ago, bio-computer interfacing experiments were conducted with squids, because they have very large neurons that are easy to work with : have squids compla
Re:This is odd (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:This is odd (Score:5, Informative)
Rats have much larger brains and visual pathways than do mice, so surgery and implants of bionic and biological devices is spatially easier. The advantage that mice have right now is the genetic resources and databases that currently are not available to the same extent as for rats.
Re:This is odd (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This is odd (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This is odd (Score:2)
I suppose rats are seen as disposable.
With the current world situation (Iraq, Palestine, Tibet, Cuba
Rats don't conjure up as much emotion as squids - squids have a kinda unique, rare quality about them.
I assume the researchers would not approve of using their children's brains in their experiments. According to science and capitalism, the right to life and freedom from torture is directly proportional to the intelligence and wealth of the individual.
NyTimes, Eh (Score:3, Funny)
time to watch T2 again (Score:2)
Now we have a rat's brain doing the cyberdyne chip part. Well we all know what a rat behaves like. the cyberdyne chip inside Arnold Schwarzenegger was at least able to say 'Hasta la Vista'. When the cyberdyne chip and its f
Re:time to watch T2 again (Score:2)
Re:time to watch T2 again (Score:2)
After a scenario like that, I don't think your intended audience need worry about their sanity.
Ratbrain enterprise edition! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Ratbrain enterprise edition! (Score:3, Funny)
Strong Sad (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Strong Sad (Score:2)
One question... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:One question... (Score:2)
Probably not, as it will be used to the mechanism. We all wondered about our human bodies some time after we were born. And frankly, even many grownups aren't comfortable with their bodies.
Re:One question... (Score:2)
No.
Living tissue (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Living tissue (Score:2)
Re:Living tissue (Score:4, Informative)
I hope (Score:5, Funny)
Monday morning
Robot tried too shag other robots
Monday afternoon
Robot refused to move from candy vending machine
Monday evening
Robot tried too shag other robots
Tuesday morning
Robot tried too shag other robots
Re:I hope (Score:3, Funny)
Monday morning
Robot behaved in a random and irrational manner
Monday afternoon
Robot behaved in a random and irrational manner
Monday evening
Robot behaved in a random and irrational manner
Tuesday morning
Robot behaved in a random and irrational manner
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Re:I hope (Score:2)
fiction meets fact: cordwainer smith (Score:2, Informative)
Georgia Tech's Article (Score:2, Informative)
Georgia Tech Researchers Use Lab Cultures to Control Robotic Device [gatech.edu]
Go Yellow Jackets!
"Hybrid Robot Uses Rat Brain" (Score:2)
No! (Score:2)
Hybrid Robot Uses Rat Brain... (Score:2)
Oh my sweet love of god. I haven't read the story and that scares the shit out of me!
Wrong headline (Score:2)
It should read:
Rat Brain Uses Hybrid Robot
Well, back to the future again. (Score:2)
The implications of this technology (Score:5, Funny)
BCI to Intelligence Amplication (Score:2, Interesting)
Quite a few people are convinced that IA will "win" out over pure AI (in the race to Singularity [caltech.edu]) simply because we already have millions of years of evolution to bootstrap from, instead of waiting for enough computing capacity for seed-AI to grow into.
--
More Sci-fi roots! (Score:2)
So that would be a Stainless Steel Rat, then? (Score:2)
This research is not very far along yet... (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh goodie.. (Score:2)
That explains it (Score:2)
Rat
More about the hybrot (Score:2)
Nuku Kick!!!!! (Score:2)
What do Roborats eat? (Score:2, Funny)
Rat Things? (Score:2)
I'd watch out real close when near one of those...before you know it, there'll be UberRats that bite
Dirty Rat Kaporian (Score:2)
obscure reference to Ruby the Galactic Gumshoe
www.zbs.org
.
.
I don't know HTML!
next step (Score:2)
Obligatory Animatrix reference (Score:2)
Wait a minute! "rat built machine"? That doesn't sound right. Somebody check the script!
Eel cyborgs (Score:3, Informative)
Oh, great. (Score:2)
Now Slashdot will be hearing from the Church of Scientology, because /. used the phrase "rat brain" in a headline.
Obvious Matrix comment (Score:1, Funny)
Robot & the Brain (Score:2, Funny)
Brain
Re:I'm going to get flamed, but (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'm going to get flamed, but (Score:2)
Why not use donated brain tissue from humans? If research like this is really promising, I'd find it hard to believe that at least other scientists in the field wouldn't be willing to have theirs used in the event of their death by natural or accidental causes. It would also provide a better model for what this is supposed to be used for eventually.
Re:I'm going to get flamed, but (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Experimenting on animals... (Score:2)
Re:Sounds useful (Score:2)
[score -1] msyoginist
Re:So this then is the output of the transhuman? (Score:2)
You don't have the slightest clue what you're talking about, do you?
And no, Transhumanists don't want to kill or control "lesser beings", and I don't know what you mean by that term, but I'm g