Robotic brain being developed in Israel

News from Jerusalem:  A computer chip that mimics the cerebellum's coordination of body movements isn't science fiction. It's working in a lab at Tel Aviv University.

ABC News nicknamed it "RoboRat" - a rodent with a hybrid composition of a biological brain and a synthetic device.

This cutting-edge experiment at Tel Aviv University involved wiring a computer chip with a manmade segment of cerebellum alongside the skull of a rodent with a disabled cerebellum. The device, remarkably, allowed the rat to return to normal activity.

Could the same kind of artificial intelligence lead to an unprecedented level of functioning for brain-damaged people who have lost the ability to move their limbs or perform other normal activities?

Prof. Matti Mintz of TAU's Department of Psychology hopes that will one day be possible.

Knowing that the cerebellum is responsible for coordinating and timing all the body's movements, Mintz and his team wanted to see if the synthetic cerebellum - a computer chip wired to the brain - could receive and interpret sensory information from the brainstem, analyze it like a biological cerebellum does, and transmit the information back to motor centers in the brainstem.

To test this robotic interface between body and brain, the researchers taught a lab rat to blink whenever it heard a particular sound. After disabling its cerebellum, they noted that the rat couldn't perform this conditioned response. But once the robotic chip was hooked up to its brain, RoboRat was once again able to blink on cue, as conditioned.