The Hybrot is part mechanical, part biological, a neuro-mechanic hybrid system. It operates on the basis of rat hippocampal brain cells, that are grown over electrodes to pick up neural electrical activity.

The activity is analysed by a computer and translated into certain patterns of movement of a commercially available silver robot. Certain spikes in the electrical activity trigger defined wheel movements.

The robot receives feedback from outside: He has sensors for light that can feed electrical signals back to the electrodes and thus modulate neural activity. Feedback, it is assumed, is a key for learning.

Scientists have produced silicon probes designed to hold 15 neurons in a line of wells. The Neuroprobe is made to be permanently implanted into neural tissue.

When the neurons in the wells send out processes and make synaptic contacts with the host tissue, there will be a specific, long-term connection with the tissue for stimulation and recording studies.

Steve Potter is using cultured hippocampal slices from neonate rats as the host tissue, so that outgrowth from the probe and synaptic integration with the slice can be monitored non-destructively, over time.

 

"It is very much a symbiosis, a digital computer and a living neural network working together."

Steve Potter; The NY Times 15 May, 2003