Scientists teach brain cells to play video game Pong

[muriel_volestrangler]

Scientists have taught brain cells how to play the video game Pong, and they now plan to experiment with getting them drunk.

As the cells, taken from humans and mice, played the game, they learned. They played longer rallies and were aced less often.

That the 800,000 cells have mastered a version of the cult 1970s video game is evidence they can exhibit sentience, the Melbourne-based researchers said.

Their peer-reviewed study has been published in the journal Neuron.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/oct/13/scientists-teach-brain-cells-to-play-virtual-pong

Integrating neurons into digital systems may enable performance infeasible with silicon alone. Here, we develop DishBrain, a system that harnesses the inherent adaptive computation of neurons in a structured environment. In vitro neural networks from human or rodent origins are integrated with in silico computing via a high-density multielectrode array. Through electrophysiological stimulation and recording, cultures are embedded in a simulated game-world, mimicking the arcade game “Pong.” Applying implications from the theory of active inference via the free energy principle, we find apparent learning within five minutes of real-time gameplay not observed in control conditions. Further experiments demonstrate the importance of closed-loop structured feedback in eliciting learning over time. Cultures display the ability to self-organize activity in a goal-directed manner in response to sparse sensory information about the consequences of their actions, which we term synthetic biological intelligence. Future applications may provide further insights into the cellular correlates of intelligence.

[kysrsoze]

1. Kind of exciting, yet truly frightening at the same time.

[intrepidity]

2. Let's see how the anti-choice folks take this.

They'll have some explaining to do. (as if)

[keithbvadu2]

3. What I find really amazing is that they can communicate both ways with the cells.