Cognitive science fiction

Abstract

Cognitive science looks more like science fiction in a US lab where scientists are working on a new generation of cyborg. Half-fish, half-robot, their creation is capable of responding to light. The researchers connect the brainstem of a lamprey to a small robot on wheels, tapping into the neural network normally responsible for the lamprey's orienting reflex. When the robot detects light, it sends an electrical signal to the disembodied brain, and the brain responds by sending a signal to the wheels, causing cyborg to move towards or away from the light source. As Sandro Musso-Ivaldi, at Northwestern University, explained to TICS, ‘the robot generates stimuli for the vestibular nerves of the lamprey and receives motor commands from the reticular neurons. The final outcome is a sensory–motor behavior of the robot, organized by the connections in the lamprey's brain’. The team hope to use their neuro-robotic system to find out about the computational properties of synaptic plasticity. Such advances in cybernetics should also speed the development of brain-controlled prostheses. H.J.B