A new experiment shows even brain cells in a dish have intelligence and can change the way they act over time.

Brain cells learning to play Pong shows that the neurons could adapt the activity to a changing environment, in a goal-oriented way, in real time.

Researchers report in the journal Neuron today that human and mouse neurons in a dish learned to play the video game Pong. The experiments show that even brain cells in a dish have intelligence and can change the way they act over time.

As explained by first author Brett Kagan (@ANeuroExplorer), neurons are the building blocks for generalized intelligence in everything from worms to flies to humans. So, the issue was: Is it possible to use neuronal interaction to tap into that innate intelligence?

First, the researchers hooked up the neurons to a computer so that the neurons could tell whether or not their paddle was hitting the ball in the game.

Electric probes that captured “spikes” on a grid were used to track the neuron’s activity as well as its reactions to this input.

When a neuron moved its paddle and hit the ball, the spikes got stronger. When neurons failed, a software program developed by Cortical Labs analyzed their playing technique.

This showed how neurons might adjust their activity in real time to a changing environment in a goal-oriented manner.

“We chose Pong due to its simplicity and familiarity, but, also, it was one of the first games used in machine learning, so we wanted to recognize that,” adds Kagan.

“An unpredictable stimulus was applied to the cells, and the system as a whole would reorganize its activity to better play the game and to minimize having a random response,” he says. “You can also think that just playing the game, hitting the ball and getting predictable stimulation, is inherently creating more predictable environments.”

The free-energy concept serves as the foundation for this learning’s notion. To put it simply, the brain adjusts to its surroundings by altering either its worldview or its behavior to better suit the environment.

The study team experimented with other games besides Pong. 

“You know when the Google Chrome browser crashes and you get that dinosaur that you can make jump over obstacles (Project Bolan). We’ve done that and we’ve seen some nice preliminary results, but we still have more work to do building new environments for custom purposes,” adds Kagan.

Future objectives for this research may include disease modeling, drug discovery, and a deeper knowledge of how the brain functions and how intelligence emerges.

“This is the start of a new frontier in understanding intelligence,” Kagan adds. “It touches on the fundamental aspects of not only what it means to be human but what it means to be alive and intelligent at all, to process information and be sentient in an ever-changing, dynamic world.”

Image Credit: Getty

Video Credit: KAGAN ET. AL / NEURON

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