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Florida scientists have grown a brain in a petri dish and taught it to pilot an F-22 jet simulator.
The brain-in-a-dish is the idea of Thomas DeMarse, 37, an assistant
professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Florida. His
work has been praised as a significant insight into the brain by
leading US academics and scientific journals.
The 25,000 neurons were suspended in a specialised liquid to keep
them alive and then laid across a grid of 60 electrodes in a small
glass dish.
Under the microscope they looked at first like grains of sand, but
soon the cells begin to connect to form what scientists are calling a
“live computation device” (a brain). The electrodes measure and
stimulate neural activity in the network, allowing researchers to study
how the brain processes, transforms and stores information.
In the most striking experiment, the brain was linked to the jet
simulator. Manipulated by the electrodes and a desktop computer, it was
taught to control the flight path, even in mock hurricane-strength
winds.
To control the simulated aircraft, the neurons first receive
information from the computer about flight conditions: whether the
plane is flying straight and level or is tilted to the left or to the
right. The neurons then analyze the data and respond by sending signals
to the plane’s controls. Those signals alter the flight path and new
information is sent to the neurons, creating a feedback system.
Although the brain currently is able to control the pitch and roll
of the simulated aircraft in weather conditions ranging from blue skies
to stormy, hurricane-force winds, the underlying goal is a more
fundamental understanding of how neurons interact as a network, DeMarse
said.
