CEJ#4

Brains of rats connected allowing them to share information via internet

Ian Sample, science correspondent   
Thursday 28 February 2013 10.05 EST   
The Guardian
Science
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/28/brains-rats-connected-share-information

Scientist create the first organic computer, using the brains of rats. They used the internet to connect the two rats brains, from the researchers' lab at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and the other in Natal, Brazil..Led by Miguel Nicolelis, a pioneer of devices that allow paralysed people to control computers and robotic arms with their thoughts, the researchers say their latest work may enable multiple brains to be hooked up to share information.The scientists first demonstrated that rats can share, and act on, each other's sensory information by electrically connecting their brains via tiny grids of electrodes that reach into the motor cortex, the brain region that processes movement.

The rats were trained to press a lever when a light went on above it. When they performed the task correctly, they got a drink of water. To test the animals' ability to share brain information, they put the rats in two separate compartments. Only one compartment had a light that came on above the lever. When the rat pressed the lever, an electronic version of its brain activity was sent directly to the other rat's brain. In trials, the second rat responded correctly to the imported brain signals 70% of the time by pressing the lever.Remarkably, the communication between the rats was two-way. If the receiving rat failed at the task, the first rat was not rewarded with a drink, and appeared to change its behaviour to make the task easier for its partner. In further experiments, the rats collaborated in a task that required them to distinguish between narrow and wide openings using their whiskers.