Saying their work could yield critical information about illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy, researchers at England’s University of Reading reportedly say they’re studying developing a robot that will help show how neurons connect within a unique piece of anatomy: rat brains.

 

Researchers reportedly say that the neurons’ movements produce spontaneous electrical patterns that can be harnessed to control a robot. By stimulating the neurons with signals from sensors on the robot and using the neurons’ response to get the robots to respond, the researchers hope to gain insights into how brains function.

 

“We’re trying to understand what is going on inside this brain material that could have direct implications for human health,” Kevin Warwick, Reading’s head of cybernetics, who is running the project with Hammond and Ben Whalley, both neuroscientists, told a reporter from “New Scientist” magazine.

 

When a brain is sliced open, its neurons seem to be randomly firing, according to the magazine, producing pulses of voltage known as action potentials. Often, though, many or all of them will fire in unison, a phenomenon known as “bursting.”

 

“There are various views on what these bursts are,” the magazine reports. “Some see them as pathological activity – akin to what happens in epilepsy – while others see them as the neural network expressing a stored memory.”

 

To test the notion that the cut-down brain bursts out of boredom, Potter’s team reportedly “sprinkled” pulses of electricity across a number of contacts on the multi-electrode array, to simulate sensory inputs, and managed to significantly quell bursting activity.

 

“It seems that sensory input is setting the background level of activity inside the brain,” Potter told “New Scientist.”

 

The results have encouraged the researchers to begin investigating disease pathology with robots controlled by the cortical cultures, according to the company.

 

“If they can make a robot do something repeatedly by sending signals to the culture, and then alter the brain chemically, electrically or physically to upset this controllability, they hope to be able to work out some causes and effects that throw light on disorders such as Alzheimer’s,” the magazine reports.

 

Robotic devices long have been used to aid medical researchers and people suffering with serious illnesses.

 

Earlier this month, experts reported that sufferers of degenerative diseases such as those classified under muscular dystrophy may get help from robotics in completing tasks and maintaining their muscle mass.

 

According to the Rochester Institute of Technology, which is part of a research team that’s studying physiological data to improve assistive devices, more sophisticated robotics are being developed all the time.

 

According to Edward Brown, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at RIT and director of its Biomechatronics Learning Laboratory, robotics take advantage of a muscular dystrophy sufferer’s residual strength and brain signals to help him regain use of muscles and limbs.

 

“Better orthotic technologies could ultimately help people suffering from this disease greatly enhance the quality of their life,” Brown said.

 

For many, that life is change dramatically with the onset of muscular dystrophy – a condition that the National Institute of Health says no treatment has been developed to stop or reverse.