NUNZIUM

The neurons are the cells responsible for receiving input from the external world and for sending motor commands to muscles. In a recent study published by a team of scientists from Monash University, Melbourne (Australia) and UC London (UK) 800’000 neurons cultured on silicon in a petri dish have learned to play the arcade 1970’s arcade game pong. Through silicon chips and arrayed electrodes, the scientists have connected humans and murine neurons to a computer where they were made aware when the paddle was making contact with the ball. It has been monitored the activity and responses of the neurons and plotted the results as spikes on a grid with spikes getting stronger the more a neuron moves a paddle and hit the ball. The results published in the journal Neuron demonstrated that neurons can adapt the activity to a changing environment in real-time. These findings pave the way to a better understanding of how intelligence arises, which would help to develop new algorithms for machine learning. Harnessing the computational power of living neurons to create synthetic biological intelligence (SBI), previously confined to the realm of science fiction, may now be within reach of human innovation.