Information has been stored in live neurons for the first time, bringing closer the creation of 鈥渃yborg鈥� computer chips that combine electronic circuits with human cells.
Networks of cultured neurons are known to spontaneously fire in specific patterns. Researchers have previously attempted to program these neural networks with new patterns, representing bits of information, by electrically stimulating individual cells. However, such zapping disrupts their spontaneous firing patterns, and for a network to successfully store information new firing patterns must be imprinted without erasing the old.
Now Itay Baruchi and Eshel Ben-Jacob of Tel Aviv University in Israel have taught new firing patterns to a network of neurons by targeting specific points of the network with a chemical called picrotoxin. The new patterns lasted for up to two days without harming the pre-existing firing patterns (Physical Review Letters E, ). 鈥淵ou can think of it like a Christmas tree with lights that flicker,鈥� says Ben-Jacob. 鈥淲e imprinted another pattern of lights on top of the original.鈥�
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Many believe that complex patterns of neuronal firing are templates for memory, which the brain uses when storing information. Imprinting such 鈥渕emories鈥� on artificial neural networks provides a potential way to develop cyborg chips, says Ben-Jacob. These would be useful for monitoring biological systems like the brain and blood since, being human, they would respond to the same chemicals.
