{"id":68550,"date":"2022-10-13T18:25:31","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T15:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=68550"},"modified":"2025-09-07T14:43:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T11:43:56","slug":"researchers-train-lab-grown-brain-cells-to-play-pong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/researchers-train-lab-grown-brain-cells-to-play-pong\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers train lab-grown brain cells to play Pong"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The startup Cortical Labs unveiled the DishBrain system of synthetic biological intelligence, capable in real time of leveraging the adaptive computations inherent to neurons to perform target tasks such as playing <span data-descr=\"arcade video game developed and released by Atari in 1972\" class=\"old_tooltip\">Pong<\/span>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Meet DishBrain: human brain cells in a dish learn to play Pong. Our latest paper published today in <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NeuroCellPress?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@NeuroCellPress<\/a>. Full paper at <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XpC7dTU8eT\">https:\/\/t.co\/XpC7dTU8eT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Cortical Labs (@CorticalLabs) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CorticalLabs\/status\/1580215321981374465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 12, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Researchers employed embryonic mouse material and <span data-descr=\"induced pluripotent stem cells\" class=\"old_tooltip\">induced pluripotent stem cells<\/span> of humans. They integrated biological neural networks (BNN) into a silicon chip designed to read and write information via electrophysiological stimulation. Then the engineers placed DishBrain in a simulated environment \u2014 Pong.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cWe chose this arcade for its simplicity and fame, and also because it is the first game used in machine learning,\u201d said Brett Kagan, Chief Scientific Officer of Cortical Labs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The team developed software capable of reading the electrical signals from the cells as they fired and applying them to the game, namely to control the paddle that keeps the ball in play. The program also provides feedback and sends the BNN information about changes in the simulated environment.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, neurons in DishBrain were able to adjust their activity in real time during five minutes of play in the real world and improve performance, demonstrating learning. For comparison, systems that were stimulated but without feedback did not show improvement.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Watch brain cells in a dish learn to play Pong in real time [1\/2]\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aGSO6L3ELI4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The developers stated that this deliberate change in behavior over time demonstrates the ability of cells even in a <span data-descr=\"a transparent laboratory vessel in the shape of a shallow flat cylinder, closed with a transparent lid of similar shape, but somewhat larger in diameter\" class=\"old_tooltip\">Petri dish<\/span> to exhibit a kind of rudimentary intelligence under the right conditions.<\/p>\n<p>According to Cortical Labs, the technology could eventually be used to test treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, including dementia and epilepsy.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cWe needed a system to test the possibility of interacting with neurons to demonstrate intelligence and purposeful activity. Now we need to study these achievements and continue developing the technology to launch new applications,\u201d said Kagan.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The team has already begun testing the system in other game environments. In the future they hope to make the technology more accessible and reliable.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in September, DeepMind <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/deepmind-trains-ai-agents-to-play-football\">developed AI agents capable of playing<\/a> virtual football.<\/p>\n<p>In July, OpenAI engineers trained an algorithm to mine resources, craft diamond tools, hunt animals and cook food in Minecraft.<\/p>\n<p>In June 2021, Google Research researchers created AI that works like the human brain.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to ForkLog news on Telegram: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/forklogAI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">ForkLog AI<\/a> \u2014 all the news from the world of AI!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The startup Cortical Labs unveiled the DishBrain system of synthetic biological intelligence capable in real time of using the adaptive computations inherent to neurons to perform target tasks such as playing Pong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[438,1155,167],"class_list":["post-68550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-games-and-gamefi","tag-research"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"13","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68552,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68550\/revisions\/68552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}