[Hardware]Brain organoid: tool for neuroscience and inspiration for hardware

[MosterOfficial ☆]

Cerebral organoids are known colloquially as “mini-brains.” A blockbuster nickname, but imprecise. Yes, they are structures that measure a few millimeters, consist of hundreds of thousands of cells instead of the billions that the human brain has and, although they emit signals similar to those of our brains, they lack cognitive abilities. Despite these restrictions, they have beautiful potential to understand neurological diseases, study human brain development, and test treatments in controlled environments. These small neural worlds made in laboratories are three-dimensional organs that imitate, without being exact replicas, human embryonic brains. Today it is also possible to generate small models of the liver, kidney, stomach and intestines. The idea of these structures was raised since the emergence of tissue culture, but took shape until 2013, when the technology was achieved to mani[CENSORED]te stem cells and create a combination of conditions that gave them neural identity, thus reproducing environments that mimic the development of specific organs. Between 2013 and 2022, more than 10 articles per month were published on this topic, more than a third were reviews. In the last year, these strategies have received particular interest due to new research, such as one that combined them with hardware and another that used fetal brain tissue, rather than individual cells.

They have also helped to understand microcephaly, a disorder characterized by insufficient brain growth. In organoids derived from patients with this condition, problems in the differentiation of neurons have been observed, which could provide an explanation for why the disease occurs. It has been suggested that, in the case of Alzheimer's, these structures can replicate pathological characteristics of beta-amyloid and tau proteins, both involved in the disease, allowing us to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying it. Earlier this year, the journal Cell reported on a new method to obtain organoids with human fetal brain tissue, using abortion samples from anonymous donors. The hope is that this model will allow for a better understanding of early human brain development by providing insight into how the brain regulates cell identity. In December 2023, a groundbreaking study on Brainoware was published in Nature Electronics. This technique consists of sending and receiving information from the brain organoid using an array of electrodes. By applying electrical stimulation in different patterns, it was shown that this technique achieves two tasks typically required of artificial intelligence: recognizing speech and doing mathematics, in this case, predicting nonlinear equations. The research seeks, in the future, to take advantage of the computing capacity of the reservoir and the learning of the organoid.

https://es.wired.com/articulos/organoide-cerebral-herramienta-para-la-neurociencia-e-inspiracion-para-el-hardware