Adaptive flight control with living neuronal networks on microelectrode arrays

The brain is perhaps one of the most robust and fault tolerant computational devices in existence and yet little is known about its mechanisms. Microelectrode arrays have recently been developed in which the computational properties of networks of living neurons can be studied in detail. In this paper we report work investigating the ability of living neurons to act as a set of neuronal weights which were used to control the flight of a simulated aircraft. These weights were manipulated via high frequency stimulation inputs to produce a system in which a living neuronal network would "learn" to control an aircraft for straight and level flight.

[1]  Miguel A. L. Nicolelis,et al.  Real-time control of a robot arm using simultaneously recorded neurons in the motor cortex , 1999, Nature Neuroscience.

[2]  R. Segev,et al.  Long term behavior of lithographically prepared in vitro neuronal networks. , 2002, Physical review letters.

[3]  G. Rebel,et al.  Neuronal cells mature faster on polyethyleneimine coated plates than on polylysine coated plates , 1992, Journal of neuroscience research.

[4]  Bruce C. Wheeler,et al.  Two-dimensional current source density analysis of propagation delays for components of epileptiform bursts in rat hippocampal slices , 1989, Brain Research.

[5]  Steve M. Potter,et al.  A new approach to neural cell culture for long-term studies , 2001, Journal of Neuroscience Methods.

[6]  Guenter W. Gross,et al.  Origins of Activity Patterns in Self-Organizing Neuronal Networks in Vitro. , 1999 .

[7]  Yasuhiko Jimbo,et al.  The dynamics of a neuronal culture of dissociated cortical neurons of neonatal rats , 2000, Biological Cybernetics.

[8]  A. Habets,et al.  Spontaneous neuronal firing patterns in fetal rat cortical networks during development in vitro: a quantitative analysis , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[9]  T. Sejnowski,et al.  Reliability of spike timing in neocortical neurons. , 1995, Science.

[10]  H. Robinson,et al.  Simultaneous induction of pathway-specific potentiation and depression in networks of cortical neurons. , 1999, Biophysical journal.

[11]  Shimon Marom,et al.  Selective Adaptation in Networks of Cortical Neurons , 2003, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[12]  U. Egert,et al.  A novel organotypic long-term culture of the rat hippocampus on substrate-integrated multielectrode arrays. , 1998, Brain research. Brain research protocols.

[13]  M A Nicolelis,et al.  Neural network mechanisms of oscillatory brain states: characterization using simultaneous multi-single neuron recordings. , 1996, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology. Supplement.

[14]  H. Robinson,et al.  Spontaneous periodic synchronized bursting during formation of mature patterns of connections in cortical cultures , 1996, Neuroscience Letters.

[15]  Eisaku Maeda,et al.  Experimental analysis of neuronal dynamics in cultured cortical networks and transitions between different patterns of activity , 1997, Biological Cybernetics.