Brain Cells Grown in Lab Have Learned to Play Video Game
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Australian researchers say they've grown brain cells in a lab that have learned to play the vintage video game Pong. The "mini-brains" they created can sense and respond to their environment. Dr. Brett Kagan said his team had created the first "sentient" brain grown in a lab. "We could find no better term to describe the device," he said. "It is able to take in information from an external source, process it, and then respond to it in real-time."
In the experiment, researchers grew human brain cells from stem cells and mouse embryos into a mini-brain consisting of 800,000 cells. They connected the mini-brain to Pong via electrodes that indicated which side the ball was on and how far from the paddle it was. Upon "viewing" the video game, the cells produced electrical activity, said the scientists, who gave the cells feedback on whether they were hitting the ball or not.