Information has been stored in live neurons for the first time, bringing closer the creation of “cyborg” computer chips that combine electronic circuits with human cells.
Networks of cultured neurons are known to spontaneously fire in specific patterns. Researchers have previously attempted to program these neural networks with new patterns, representing bits of information, by electrically stimulating individual cells. However, such zapping disrupts their spontaneous firing patterns, and for a network to successfully store information new firing patterns must be imprinted without erasing the old.
Now Itay Baruchi and Eshel Ben-Jacob of Tel Aviv University in Israel have taught new…
