Rat’s brain used in robot to help Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s

Love them or hate them rat’s could end up changing the lives of thousands of people who suffer from Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s. Researchers at the University of Reading in England have developed a small robot that is controlled by the brain of a rat.

Well when I say a rat’s brain I mean a Petri dish full of rat neurons. These neurons are able to remotely steer the robot via Bluetooth wireless signals. Professor Kevin Warwick said “If we can understand some of the basics of what is going on in our little model brain, it could have enormous medical spin-offs.”

The team at the University of Reading had to dissolve a fetal rat’s brain, which they then placed in into an electrode-ringed Petri dish. These cells then reassociated themselves with each other, they then begun to fire electrical signals randomly.

The electrical pulses that were sent through the ring of electrodes managed to calm the neurons down, after a period of time those cells then began to learn patterns among the external pulses.

The team hopes that by understanding their findings will help them to shed a bit of light on neurodegenerative disorders; this includes Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

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