MedTechFuture.com

The New Scientist recently published an article on engineers who have interfaced neurons with computer circuits. The brain is a fascinating web of dense neural connections but the brain can be unreliable. As the article points out: “one neuron can successfully provoke a signal in another only 40% of the time.”

So what if scientists could improve the brain’s neural network using silicon-based technology? That has, so far, been an elusive goal that, once achieved, cuold be used to treat a variety of diseases associated with damaged nervous systems.

Engineers working with neurons in the lab have built reliable digital logic gates that perform like those inside electronics.

The starting point is a glass plate coated with cell-repellent material. The desired circuit pattern is scratched into this coating and then coated with a cell-friendly adhesive. Unable to gain purchase on most of the plate, the cells are forced to grow in the scratched areas.

The scratched paths are thin enough to force the neurons to grow along them in one direction only, forming straight wire-like connections around the circuit.

Using this method the researchers built a device that acts like an AND logic gate, producing an output only when it receives two inputs.

Technorati Tags: brain implants, brain research, brain-cell logic circuits, neural prosthetics, neurons, paralysis

An image of the cerebral lobes

For those of you who have seen the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, this may seem familiar:

Researchers at the Medical College of Georgia were able to selectively erase unique memories in laboratory mice. Potential applications of the research include therapies for for phobias, depression, PTSD, and other similar conditions.

According to a press release from the group, Dr. Joe Z. Tsien, who is a brain scientist and a codirector of the Brain & Behavior Discovery Institute located at the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine, have created a mouse unable to store memories through the elimination of the NMDA receptor, which receives messages from other neurons. Tsien also created a smart mouse (which incidentally is named “Doogie”) by overexpressing  the NMDA receptor.

From the press release:

This time [Tsien] was examining downstream cascades of the NMDA receptor to learn more about memory formation. An abundant protein found only in the brain, called αCaMKII, was a logical place to look because it’s a major signaling molecule for the NMDA receptor. He found that when he over-expressed αCaMKII while a memory was being recalled, that single memory was eliminated.

Receptors such as the NMDA receptor are like front doors to cells, providing an opening for signaling molecules such as calcium. Synapses are the point of communication between two cells, and NMDA receptors are on the receiving end of the message. Like people, neurons change with the signals they receive. “Learning changes the way cells connect to each other,” says Dr. Tsien. To form a memory, the NMDA receptor is activated, which results in the insertion of AMPA receptors into those synapses and subsequent strengthening of the synaptic connections among hundreds of thousands of neurons. Scientists believe that αCaMKII plays an important role in the insertion of AMPA receptors into synapses during learning and subsequent strengthening of connections between neurons to create a memory.

Memory has four distinct stages: learning, consolidation, storage and recall. It has been difficult to dissect the molecular mechanisms of these stages because researchers lacked techniques to manipulate proteins quickly. For example, when researchers disable a gene suspected to play a role in the memory process, the deletion typically occurred throughout the entire period so it was impossible to tell which parts of processes were impaired. Previous technology would take several days to switch off a protein, which is the product of a gene.

So Dr. Tsien’s team developed a powerful chemical-genetic method that allows him to use a pharmacologic inhibitor to instantly turn αCaMKII off and on in a mouse that he genetically engineered to over express this signaling molecule. That enabled him to study exactly what happened if he threw off the natural balance during the retrieval stage.

Technorati Tags: brain research, Joe Z. Tsien, Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine, memory research