X-Message-Number: 29551
Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 00:29:36 -0500
From: Jonano <>
Subject: Data stored in live neurons

Data stored in live neurons
08 June 2007
NewScientist.com news service



http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/mg19426075.700-data-stored-in-live-neurons.html

Information has been stored in live neurons for the first time,
bringing closer the creation of "cyborg" 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, DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevE.75.050901). "You can think of it like a Christmas
tree with lights that flicker," says Ben-Jacob. "We imprinted another
pattern of lights on top of the original."
Many believe that complex patterns of neuronal firing are templates
for memory, which the brain uses when storing information. Imprinting
such "memories" 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.

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