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Scientists from the Institute of Biomedical Neuroscience, BNI, University of Chile, working on a project of neuron cultures in vitro, with the aim of building a cyborg to fight against neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease
Research, in which work is carried out by three INB laboratories, has led to the development of neuronal cultures that, thanks to electrodes, can direct the movements of a vehicle in a virtual environment, explained Dr. Rodrigo Vergara, director of research.
The neuron cultures, he describes, constitute a circuit in which the neurons are immersed a liquid located on an electrode grid, which is itself connected to a virtual environment housed in a computer.
In this area, the cells can control a rite through this to the stimulation of the electrodes, learn to avoid blows against obstacles, added.
It should be noted that cyborg is defined as the mixture of cybernetic elements with networks of neurons as the only living organism.
"The main challenge The project is to develop what we call an in vitro behavior protocol, which means that these behaviors are not contained by a living being, but are sown in cultures of neurons connected to a mechanical device. "said Vergara.
The term above means "literally, building a cyborg to generate behaviors, lending the neurons a body for a displacement," he said.
He added that, unlike artificial intelligence, in which no living tissue is involved and where a computer learns a protocol, the cyborg represents the interaction between a living tissue and [19659004] Thus, the particular implications of this research are related to "the applied use of the brain-machine interface and its transfer to studies on the search for therapies for neurodegenerative diseases" ", he explained.
mammals can have spontaneous activity and thanks to this, when they are placed in a culture, apart from a living organism and a displacement in the electrode of one. vehicle in a virtual environment can generate a shift.
Operation
The car is equipped with a motion sensor that provides information to the neurons, allows that, when it is stimulated by the electrodes, the culture shapes the behavior of the mobile, avoiding that it does not encounter obstacles.
"The wheels move according to the activity of the electrode, but if we introduce sensor information, to approach an object, we can return a message and induce the electrodes to move it in a other direction, "said the expert.
"Thus, at some point in the process, culture learns not to crash: detects obstacle, stops and continues."
The virtual environment is built in the help of a software developed by Dr. Cristobal Moene, with which it is even possible to change the surface on which the vehicle is placed. Plaza, recording all your movements. This ability is what could be transferred for peripheral or intracranial cerebral stimulation in the treatment of diseases such as Parkinson's disease.
In the case of this disease, Vergara described, one can "record the activity of neurons and, for that, stimulate better results regarding their symptoms, by inducing or eliminating activities."
He warned that getting answers of this type "would be much harder in a complete brain", but that they "trust" that, at the end of the search, get information to support the studies on neurodegenerative diseases. "
He notes that the mechanisms involved in how the brain learns behavior, are not treated in a modern way," from basic science, we want to solve how we can learn to trolley to not plant, because this information is quickly transferable to how we can stimulate the symptomatology of kinson or other diseases that require peripheral stimulation of the brain. "
Up to "Many of the stimuli that are working have been tried, but the question is how long is it done," concluded Dr. Vergara. 19659022] window.fbAsyncInit = function () {
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