Controversial cyborg rat tests may help fix brain damage
Electrodes are being used to stimulate its brain, creating waveform readings on a nearby computer screen.
The rat is part of a groundbreaking study at Israel’s Tel Aviv University psychology department.
Researchers are attempting to replace part of this and other rats’ brains with digital equipment, effectively turning them into cyborgs.
Anti-vivisection campaigners have described the tests as “grotesque” but the scientists claim the work will eventually help them make repairs to what is possibly the world’s most complex computer - the human brain.
The work aims to help people with diseases such as Parkinson’s or those who have suffered a stroke.
It involves swapping damaged brain tissue with a microchip that is wired to the brain, allowing it to carry out the tasks that the healthy tissue would have performed.
To do it, the researchers insert sets of electrodes up to 1cm deep inside a rat’s brain and then connect them to a microchip embedded just under the skin of the rodent’s skull.
The chip then receives and interprets sensory information from the brainstem - the lower area of the brain - and analyses it as the original biological part would, before transmitting the information back to motor centres in the brainstem.
I am not promoting the use of animals in research.
