By Dr.Y.Bala Murali Krishna
Hyderabad,October 7: Days are not far off when a human being with
brain damage could move about normally with the implant of a
micro-chip that works like an artificial brain!
This concept of Cyborg, as we see in many modern movies including the
famous “Robot” enacted by film star RajniKant recently, may be
possible, with the successful implant of an artificial robotic brain
into a rat’s skull with brain damage recently. This was achieved by an Israeli scientist with a new cutting-edge technology aimed at providing amputees with robotic limbs.
The Tel Aviv University(TAU) researcher has successfully implanted a
robotic cerebellum into the skull of a rodent with brain damage,
restoring its capacity for movement.
“The cerebellum is responsible for co-ordinating movement, “explains
Prof. Matti Mintz of TAU’s Department of Psychology. When wired to the
brain, his “robo-cerebellum” receives, interprets, and transmits
sensory information from the brain stem, facilitating communication
between the brain and the body.
To test this robotic interface between body and brain, the researchers
taught a brain-damaged rat to blink whenever they sounded a particular
tone. The rat could only perform the behavior when its robotic
cerebellum was functional.
“It’s a proof of the concept that we can record information from the
brain, analyze it in a way similar to the biological network, and then
return it to the brain,” says Prof. Mintz, who recently presented his
research at the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence
meeting in Cambridge, UK.
According to the researcher, the chip is designed to mimic natural
neuronal activity. In the future, this robo-cerebellum could lead to
electronic implants that replace damaged tissues in the human brain,
scientists believe.
American Friends of Tel Aviv University (www.aftau.org) supports
Israel’s leading, most comprehensive and most sought-after center of
higher learning.
Independently ranked 94th among the world’s top universities for the
impact of its research, TAU’s innovations and discoveries are cited
more often by the global scientific community than all but 10 other
universities.
Internationally recognized for the scope and groundbreaking nature of
its research and scholarship, Tel Aviv University consistently
produces work with profound implications for the future.(RNI)
