Brain-computer interface technology, known as "black technology", has "evolved" again. Recently, the team of Haihe Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interaction and Human-Computer Integration of Tianjin University and the Southern University of Science and Technology have collaborated to develop the world's first open-source brain-computer interface intelligent interaction system MetaBOC, which realizes the unmanned control of the cultivated "brain" for tasks such as robot obstacle avoidance, tracking, and grasping, and completes the enlightenment work of a variety of brain-like computing.
Cultivating the "brain" is the command center of the system. For the first time in the world, the team confirmed the role of physics in promoting the growth and development of human-derived brain organoids, clarified the principle and mechanism of low-intensity focused ultrasound on the brain, and provided a cultivated "brain" with a better intelligence foundation for MetaBOC, an intelligent brain-on-a-chip interactive system. The findings were recently published in Brain, an international journal in the field of brain science.
It is understood that the human brain is the most complex substance in the known world. At present, under the wave of integration and interaction between the new generation of living and non-living organisms, how to achieve "mind control" through the "brain" cultivated in vitro by stem cell technology, the research on brain-computer interface on a chip is attracting extensive attention from the academic community.
"Brain-on-chip interface is a technology that uses in vitro culture of 'brains' (such as brain organoids) to form a brain-on-a-chip formed by coupling them with electrode chips, and realizes its interaction with external information through encoding and decoding and stimulus-feedback." Professor Ming Dong, Vice President of Tianjin University and Executive Director of the Haihe Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interaction and Human-Computer Integration, believes that as an important emerging branch in the field of brain-computer interface, brain-computer interface on chip is expected to revolutionize the development of cutting-edge scientific and technological fields such as hybrid intelligence and brain-like computing.
At present, the construction technology of brain-computer interface on chip is still in its infancy, involving many key links such as intelligent foundation, intelligent communication, intelligent migration, and intelligent fusion. Among them, the intelligence foundation, as the central processing unit CPU of the agent, is the core of the realization of brain-on-chip intelligence, aiming to efficiently simulate and analyze the brain.
Construction of an on-chip brain-computer interface for an in-vivo application system
"Brain organoids, which are currently regarded as the most promising basic models of intelligence, still face bottlenecks such as low maturity and insufficient nutrient supply, although they have similar structures and functions to the human brain." Li Xiaohong, a professor at Tianjin University School of Medicine and the leader of the brain-computer interface team of brain-computer interaction and human-computer integration Haihe Laboratory, said frankly.
The team found that low-intensity focused ultrasound can significantly promote the proliferation of neural progenitor cells and the differentiation of neurons, increase the thickness of the cortical plate, make it clearly layered, promote the maturation of synaptic structure and function, and finally form a 3D neural network with high complexity and storage computing power, providing a better intelligent foundation for brain-computer interfaces on chips.
This study further confirmed that low-intensity focused ultrasound can promote the integration and interaction between brain organoids and hosts, as well as the regenerative repair of neurodevelopmental defects, and preliminarily demonstrated the application potential of brain-on-a-chip systems in the field of medical rehabilitation.
One of the application scenarios of brain-computer interface on chip
Li Xiaohong introduced that MetaBOC, an intelligent brain-computer interface intelligent interaction system on a chip, covers four modules, is suitable for multi-dimensional brain-on-chip, has a multi-stimulus paradigm, integrates artificial intelligence technology, and can integrate multi-tasking.
In the future, the team will further deepen the exploration of key scientific issues such as intelligent communication, intelligent migration, and intelligent fusion of brain-computer interface on chip, and promote the transformation and application of brain-computer interface technology on chip as soon as possible.
Source: Science and Technology Daily, Haihe Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interaction and Human-Computer Integration