Thu 25 July 2019:
Using light to create and modify memories, a team of Australian researchers developed an electronic chip that mimics the human brain. Researchers from RMIT University drew inspiration from optogenetics to develop a device that replicates the way the brain stores and loses information.
According to the German News Agency, Optogenetics allows scientists to delve into the body’s electrical system with incredible precision, using light to manipulate neurons.
The new chip is based on an ultra-thin material that changes electrical resistance in response to different wavelengths of light, enabling it to mimic the way that neurons work to store and delete information in the brain.
The Science Daily website quoted research team leader Sumeet Walia saying “the technology moves us closer towards artificial intelligence (AI) that can harness the brain’s full sophisticated functionality.”
“Our optogenetically-inspired chip imitates the fundamental biology of nature’s best computer- the human brain. We’re able to simulate the brain’s neural approach simply by shining different colors onto our chip,” Walia said.
“It also brings us an important step closer to the realization of a bionic brain, a brain-on-a-chip that can learn from its environment just like humans do,” he concluded.
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