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Scientists Create Tiny Artificial Brain That Exhibits 12 Seconds of Short Term Memory

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spiderman123

Member
It’s not artificial intelligence in the Turing test sense, but the technicolor ring you see above is actually an artificial microbrain, derived from rat brain cells--just 40 to 60 neurons in total--that is capable of about 12 seconds of short-term memory.

Developed by a team at the University of Pittsburgh, the brain was created in an attempt to artificially nurture a working brain into existence so that researchers could study neural networks and how our brains transmit electrical signals and store data so efficiently. The did so by attaching a layer of proteins to a silicon disk and adding brain cells from embryonic rats that attached themselves to the proteins and grew to connect with one another in the ring seen above.

But as if the growing of a tiny, functioning, donut-shaped brain in a petri dish wasn’t enough, the team found that when they stimulate the neurons with electricity, the pulse would circulate the microbrain for a full 12 seconds. That’s roughly 12 seconds longer than they thought it would (they expected the pulse to live for about a quarter of a second).

That’s essentially short-term memory. The neurons were relaying the signal in sequence, persistently, mimicking the activity we know as working memory (though admittedly we don’t understand it that well). The brain is basically storing the stimulus long after the stimulus is no more, which is a big deal for a tiny brain grown in a dish.
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Source http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-06/tiny-artificial-rat-brain-exhibits-12-seconds-short-term-memory

Petri-dish-brain-650.jpeg
 
S

Sharp

Member
Neat stuff. Well-controlled environments like this should make it much easier to advance our understanding of the brain and, hopefully, allow us to apply some of those principles to computer networks.
 
S

Scrow

Still Tagged Accordingly
i think the key to unlocking human or super-human AI is simulating our addiction to dopamine and serotonin.

that's pretty much everything that drives us to do what we do.
 
M

MooMoo

Member
Cool, so it has the memory span of two goldfishes and it's donut shaped. Who needs goldfish anymore? I'd take a dozen donut shaped brains over goldfish any day.
 
T

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
MooMoo said:
Cool, so it has the memory span of two goldfishes and it's donut shaped. Who needs goldfish anymore? I'd take a dozen donut shaped brains over goldfish any day.
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But... Goldfish have some form of long-term memory, this brain doesn't.

Goldfish: 1. Rat brain donut: 0.
 
R

Ranger X

Member
So is this considered bio technology or it's just "bio" ?

And when we'll have a biological robot done in the futur, will that thing be a machine or a natural entity like us?

:)
 
D

demon

I don't mean to alarm you but you have dogs on your face
I for one welcome our new short-term memory petri dish overlords.
 
C

clearacell

Member
sans_pants said:
why are you guys so freaked out about this?
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It may seem like a little thing, but we all know that humans/science is going to continually push the envelope, and this little rat brain experiment WILL bring about small, incremental, but more complex brains that will eventually think for itself. If we ever make something that is self aware, we're going to run into some pretty big problems.
 
E

Esperado

Member
clearacell said:
It may seem like a little thing, but we all know that humans/science is going to continually push the envelope, and this little rat brain experiment WILL bring about small, incremental, but more complex brains that will eventually think for itself. If we ever make something that is self aware, we're going to run into some pretty big problems.
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We just gotta make sure some asshole doesn't put it into some kind of weaponized robot.
 
O

Orayn

Member
clearacell said:
It may seem like a little thing, but we all know that humans/science is going to continually push the envelope, and this little rat brain experiment WILL bring about small, incremental, but more complex brains that will eventually think for itself. If we ever make something that is self aware, we're going to run into some pretty big problems.
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Only if you give it access to, you know, a body. Or weapons.

I can't see any such experiments happening outside of a "sandbox" configuration where all possible input/output methods are closely monitored and can be shut down at a moment's notice. Outside of the movies, scientists wouldn't put an advanced (artificial) intelligence in any configuration that could be dangerous.
 
C

CornBurrito

Member
sans_pants said:
why are you guys so freaked out about this?
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People are actually worried? I just assume the "so it begins/this is the end" doomsayers are joking because basically every movie with AI/Bioengineering basically ends with whatever we create rebelling against humanity.
 
R

Rapstah

Member
So some of you actually think this thing would be capable of destroying the world if plugged into nuclear missiles? It can't even think, the "memory" was a current sent through it by the scientists. THE BRAINS ARE DEAD.
 
Q

Qwomo

Junior Member
Look at you, hacker: pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?
 
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