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Cyborg rats use sense of touch to detect infrared light
Quite often, when we hear about brain-machine interfaces, it’s in the context of returning an ability to people who lack it. People who are unable to speak, for instance, might be able to interface with a machine that could speak for them. Recently, however, scientists at Duke University used such an interface to augment rats with a sort of “sixth sense” – the ability to detect invisible infrared light by sense of touch. The research could have significant implications for the disabled.
In the experiment, the team started by regularly placing the rats in a chamber containing three LED lights, each one located above a small port. The scientists taught the rats that when any of those lights came on (in a random pattern), they would be rewarded with a sip of water if they stuck their nose in the port underneath it.
Infrared detectors were then attached to the rats’ foreheads, and wired into their brains using an array of stimulating microelectrodes. More specifically, those electrodes were implanted in the cortical region of the brain that processes tactile information from the facial whiskers. The LEDs, meanwhile, were replaced with infrared lights that were too weak to give off any detectable heat – like all mammals, rats are unable to see infrared light.
When the rats were returned to the chamber, their detectors would send their brains a “touch” signal whenever one of the lights illuminated. Those signals would get stronger as the rats got closer to the light source. At first, the animals simply rubbed at their faces when this happened. After about a month, however, they learned to associate those signals with the lights. By sweeping their heads back and forth, they could determine which light was on, and proceed to get water from its port. One of the rats can be seen in action in the video at the bottom of the page.
In order to make sure that the animals weren’t somehow detecting the infrared light in another way, the scientists temporarily disabled their infrared detectors. When they did so, the rats weren’t able to locate the right lights.
What the scientists found particularly intriguing was the fact that while the one region of the rats’ brains was processing input from the infrared detector, it was also still capable of processing regular touch input from the whiskers – it didn’t have to give up one for the other.
Based on this observation, the researchers believe it’s possible that if people lack a sense due to damage to the area of the brain associated with that particular type of sensory input, they may be able to regain that sense by going through another part of the brain. A person who is blind due to damage to their visual cortex, for instance, might be able to see again if their retinal impulses were routed into another cortical region. That other region would still be able to perform its regular function – it would just be doing double duty.
According to neurobiologist Miguel Nicolelis, who led the research and who also led a previous study that allowed monkeys to control a virtual arm and touch and feel virtual objects using only their brain activity, the technology could conceivably also be used to give rats – or humans – the ability to actually see infrared light, among other things. “We could create devices sensitive to any physical energy,” he said. “It could be magnetic fields, radio waves, or ultrasound. We chose infrared initially because it didn't interfere with our electrophysiological recordings.”
A paper on the research was published this week in the journal Nature Communications, and can be accessed via the link below.
Source: Duke University
Source: http://www.gizmag.com/infrared-sensory-input-rats/26279/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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