Tel Aviv (Israel) – Two scientists from the Tel-Aviv University have shown that information can be stored in live neurons. The research results provide a new way to help understand how our brain learns and store information, but also indicate that a “cyborg-like integration of living material into memory chips” could become a reality in the foreseeable future.

The experiment published on May 16 in Physical Review E, is based on the idea that linking neurons can result in spontaneous, coordinated firing. Itay Baruchi and Eshel Ben-Jacob of Tel-Aviv University said that they were able to create additional firings by using a special protocol of local chemical stimulations, which created multiple, rudimentary memories stored in the neuron network.  

 

To create stored memory in the neurons, the researchers introduced a chemical stimulant into the culture at a specific location. The stimulant induced a second firing pattern, starting at that location. The new firing pattern in the culture along coexisted with the original pattern. 24 hours later, they injected another round of stimulants at a new location, and a third firing pattern emerged. The scientists used an array of electrodes to monitor the firing patterns in a network of linked neurons, which revealed that the three memory patterns persisted, without interfering with each other, for more than 40 hours.

Previously published researched already indicated that coordinated neuron firing, referred to as synchronized bursting events, could be viewed as “memory templates” or “precursers of memory-related activity modes in task-performing in vivo networks.” However, Baruchi and Ben-Jacob are apparently first to actually “store” information in a cultured neuron network for an extended period of time.

Baruchi and Ben-Jacob concluded that chemical signaling mechanisms might play a “crucial role in memory and learning in task-performing [living] networks.” With some imagination, the experiment resulted in a chemically operated neuro-memory chip – which could show a way towards a memory chip that not only includes “dead”, but also living material.

When can I upgrade?

May 29, 2007 16:29     

I guess some 2 GB of extra RAM would be nice... I wouldn't need to write my contacts' names using those clumsy phone keys, for once.
Blade Runner report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

neuron

May 29, 2007 18:14     

Esoteric good.. Hypothetical BS better .. Research grant for subject.. Laughable.
chaz report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

ah great

May 29, 2007 20:30     

Thank you shadowrun & system shock for perverting scientists to the persuit of 'skillsoft's '.
catman report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Yeah, crazy...

May 29, 2007 21:23     

Y'know, first they talked about making horseless carriages and make lanterns without flames. Then they talked about making man fly and even go to the moon! How about a war that would engulf the entire world? They even said my computer would need more than 640k or memory, and that a cell had a complex microfiliment and microtubule cytoskeleton that provided both structure and a "interstate" system for transportation. Assuming this oil-based unchecked-population-growth economy is sustainable, neurobiology is an up-and-coming field that will produce amazing results much like Newtonian physics, calculus, general relativity, quantum mechanics, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology. Don't be too quick to dismiss it as laughable, as there is a good chance engineers and neurologists will be laughing at your comments in 20 years.

M Dillenbeck report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

finally a use for our vegetables

May 29, 2007 22:06     

Seriously we could start using braindead people as servers. Everyone wins, person stays on life support and we get a nice ftp server.
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stepping stone ... the vic 20 of the future

May 29, 2007 22:50     

Well this is an eye opener. The thought of downloading our memories to a chip just took one step closer to that being a reality. So if we understand in the next 10 years how the brain stores thoughts and memory. And we figure out exactly how the brain works. Wow trading memories and thoughts with a computer. So if I am thinking of these things. (The Red neck from Wisconsin) What are these guys who are discovering this thinking of.

ron allen report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Ghost in the Shell all over again...

May 29, 2007 23:22     

Shirow Masamune was 100% spot on with his predictions about where technology would head back in the 1980s. Ofcourse its not a huge leap of the imagination to realize that humans would try to merge themselves with their machines. The crazier the Sci-Fi idea you have, the more of a chance it will become reality. Cell phones that flip open from Star Trek proved that. Now all we gotta do is figure out how to create and control worm holes to travel instantaneously and I think we will come close to creating technology out of every strange sci-fi idea.

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I thought it was obvious...

May 30, 2007 04:14     

that this is where the future of robotics and computers were going. The memory we've devised using metals and electricity is simply a replication of what already exists in nature. The more technically advanced we become the more closely we come to represent and copy what already exists in nature.
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its the terminator!

May 30, 2007 05:20     

"I'm a cybernetic organism!"
nig report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Newegg sells these now

May 30, 2007 07:50     

I think they run 90$/GB, but thats after the rebate. (takes 6-8 months to get your rebate). Oh yeah, you need the cerebral implant too - that runs 22 million.
Core report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

something about a 2 gigs upgrade

May 30, 2007 08:10     

to Blade Runner did you figure out what quantity of information that can be held into your brain when you're thinking about any moment of your life ? i think a thousand gigs wouldn't be enough to even store images, and visual moving data. 2 gigs would maybe... help you retain numeric value like adresses, phone number and all... but that part would also be volatile and probably erased by magnetic fields... while your body won't even feel anything about it. it's a technology we should never use as "upgrade" or you could pee your pants every time you pass by a Cell phone which could happend 30 times a day

Da Tronics report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Real Use

May 30, 2007 08:22     

truly, this will help understanding how brain works. then, maybe some cure to brain related illness can be found and ultimately, we could think about wireless communication. i doubt we can even read something comming out from a live human brain cell. we're certainly encrypted and the logical emplacement of, say, a single phone number can be a negligeable information to search through all information accumulated into a brain in 30 or more years including false information. i also think any biologic cells needs a routing interface which would be as dreaming. during a post(sleep) all cells needs to interconnect and communicate to establish a map of where is the information stocked, information must be verified and maybe... re-positionned which makes a good old random weird dream about what happened this week with a touch about what you always have in mind

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Could give a whole new meaning to BSOD

May 30, 2007 11:17     

just don't let Microsoft write anything that will link into my brain! Seriously though, will there come a time where we will live in disembodied form, living entirely in electronic fashion, existing solely as a digital pattern? Scary, but wow, imagine that - a 30 min trip to Mars :)
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Niiicce...

May 30, 2007 12:34     

I can just see it!! Mission Impossible 8: "This message will decay in 40 hours."
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Re: Niicce...

May 31, 2007 13:05     

Actually that was used in Mission Impossible 3 (not a message though but a tiny bomb in your brain)... Keanu Reeves: Whoa.
bfellow report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

damn

Jun 01, 2007 20:21     

This sounds really neat. The implications it leaves are a bit scary but what the hell lets do it anyway
ricky report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Blow up Cybadyne!!!!

Jun 03, 2007 22:46     

Dese are da people who make da cybanetic organisms! Dey must be derminated!!! Ged To Da Choppa!!!!
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The human brain can hold...

Jun 04, 2007 20:52     

roughly 4 GB of information. That's right. Our brain was the hard drive of the mid 90's. But that's because only so much of the neurons in our brains are dedicated to memory; a lot are dedicated to thinking and general body function. And yet, the average human has supposedly unlocked less than 10% of their brain power, but regular exercise would unlock alot more. Einstein used some 20% of his brain, which is why he was a genius. By ignoring social norms and set rules, such as the once-popular theories of physics and chemistry before the 40's, he allowed himself to draw new conclusions by eliminating the possibility of pre-existing flaws. Without him, the Sun would still be made of Iron. The human brain is still smarter than a computer, because it can process previously unknown information, and can create new information of its own; it is not set by mathematical rules as a computer is, which is why computers are still better at math. But hey, the only part of the Human race that is proven to still be evolving is the brain, getting more and more powerful with each generation. Pretty soon we will be the big-headed bug-eyed aliens if we dont exercise enough and watch too much TV. supposedly if you unlocked enough of your brain, you would become a psychic/telekinetic.

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The human brain...

Jun 05, 2007 01:08     

I was having this discussion with my girlfriend the other day and she was saying she needed a couple of extra gig's of memory space. I think the brain has more than 4Gigs of memory, because it is stated the human brain does not forget anything, only the pathways to the information degrade, and so you forget. With all of the things the brain has to remember; touch, taste, smell, sound, vision, I think the brain would use 4gig's in a minute. A digital film, uncompressed for the cinema (as in before put to DVD or HDDVD) takes about 500gig's of space, and thats just for a 2 hour movie, without the human extra's. How does that go now in the memory stakes?

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Well Actualy....

Jun 05, 2007 10:03     

The Human Brain can hold up to approx. 70 TB of information, not to mention that all humans can use more then 10% of their brain. That was a stupid rumour that spread and became integrated into society. The brain is fragmented so different parts control differnt things, so i'll throw out some random numbers, 5% for speaking, 5% for seeing, etc. Anyways, back to the new tech, if this technology goes as far as i think it will, people who have a tramatic experience will be able to have that experience removed from their memories, not even to mention that crime fighting will be able to use this as a means of evidence in a crime investigation. Copy and paste onto a computer, bam, a audi/video record of what happened (Think Star trek, The Next Generation the episode this happened to Riker)

James report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Memory space...

Jun 05, 2007 18:26     

Oh my girlfriend can argue, I told her I made my post yesterday, and then she started off with comparing brains to computers, with 'file types' and 'compression'. Not sure if you could really compare the brain to a computer on its 'file' access speed, computational speed and memory storage. The brain deals with a lot of things when it comes to memory, the senses - real memories and fake memories/dreams. Don't be silly, Riker is not real, and the events never happened, 'cause it didn't happen on Babylon 5, and it only happened with the SG1 team because it was Ancients' technology, far out side our own level of tech. hehe

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none

Jun 06, 2007 13:22     

men... brain speed is off chart... the speed the brain use to access and search of the information within our neurons.. is outstanding.. search: withing a millions of video, audio, and data storage (our memory in seconds...) and produce millions within nano seconds (our thinking) i would be amazing... the storage type will be abstract not physical or predetermined, it will only be limited by our imagination. by the way. you dont need any compression.. the amount of storage of one neuron is way above any amount of known storage capability known in computer terms... and by the way... just a small part of our brain is used to control our common motion, like walking, speaking, thinking, seeing, hearing.. and all many others... and i would said, that part is like less than 1% of our brain... while the other 8% is used for storage.. our whole life... and the 1% less is non used... what I'm saying is that we used and 32 core processor.. well capable of processing half of world population spec, just for checking email..... what a poor used of our brain...

david report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Uh...yeah sure buddy.... WHATEVER that was suppose...

Jun 06, 2007 16:17     

Uh...yeah sure buddy.... WHATEVER that was supposed to be(david) stick to things you know, buddy.
Russ report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

and by the way

Jun 07, 2007 10:04     

they said the amount of 70tb was referred to a neurone storage capability and that was and still is hypothetical. 1 neurone, not to the hole brain...
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