A group from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Research Campus developed an unique system that combines virtual reality and a brain-machine interface to take a look at the rats inner ideas. Like people, when rats experience events and places, neural activity patterns are triggered in the hippocampus, responsible for spatial memory.
” The rat can certainly trigger the representation of locations in the environment without going there,” Chongxi Lai, a postdoc researcher in the Harris and Lee Labs and first author of a paper, said in a press release, explaining the brand-new findings. “Even if his physical body is fixed, his spatial ideas can go to an extremely remote area.”
As people, we can use our imaginations to envision remaining in locations we have actually checked out before. Whether its our last beach vacation or someplace were fond of, were usually quite great at using our vivid imagination. However our ability may not be that unique. In fact, it appears that rats can do something comparable. Scientists have found that rats can browse through a location they have actually previously checked out simply by utilizing their ideas, recommending they have imagination.
AI-generated image.
An unique brain-machine user interface
The BMI establishes a connection between the electrical activity in the rats hippocampus and its position within a 360-degree virtual reality arena. The hippocampus functions as the repository for psychological maps of the world associated with remembering previous events and imagining future scenarios, something we didnt know animals might control.
In their study, the group worked to develop a system to comprehend what animals are believing– a real-time thought detector that measures neural activity and translates what it suggests. The system utilizes a brain-machine user interface (BMI), establishing a direct link in between brain activity and an external device.
The BMI produces a connection between the electrical activity in the rats hippocampus and its position in a 360-degree virtual reality arena. The hippocampus stores psychological maps of the world involved in remembering past events and envisioning future circumstances. Previously, nobody understood whether animals might control this activity.
A rats inner ideas
Once they established the system, the scientists had to create a “idea dictionary” that would enable them to decipher the rats brain signals. This dictionary compiles what activity patterns look like when the rat experiences something– in this case, places in the VR arena. The rat is connected to the system and its actions are revealed on a screen.
“The stunning thing is how rats learn to believe about that location, and no other place, for a long period, based on our, maybe naïve, concept of the attention period of a rat,” Tim Harris, research study author, said in a press release. The researchers believe that BMI can be used to penetrate hippocampal activity, offering us a new system to study this brain region.
Rats had to take on 2 jobs. In the “jumper” job, they utilized their ideas to browse to a reward by very first believing about where they require to go, an idea process humans experience frequently. On the “Jedi” job, the rat is fixed in a virtual location but “moves” an item to an objective in the VR space by controlling its hippocampal activity.
The research study was released in the journal Science.
The researchers found that rats can precisely and flexibly control their hippocampal activity much like humans do. The animals are likewise efficient in sustaining this hippocampal activity, holding their ideas on a given place for many seconds– a timeframe thats comparable to the length of time people can relive past events or picture brand-new situations.
The BMI system concurrently tapes the rats hippocampal activity. This enables the scientists to recognize which nerve cells are triggered when the rat browses the area to reach each goal. These signals then supply the basis for a real-time hippocampal BMI, with the brains hippocampal activity translated into actions shown on the screen.
Image credits: Flickr/ IRRI images.
Researchers have discovered that rats can browse through a place they have formerly checked out just by utilizing their ideas, recommending they have creativity.
The BMI produces a connection in between the electrical activity in the rats hippocampus and its position in a 360-degree virtual reality arena. Once they established the system, the researchers had to produce a “idea dictionary” that would allow them to translate the rats brain signals. The BMI system concurrently tapes the rats hippocampal activity. On the “Jedi” job, the rat is fixed in a virtual location however “moves” an object to an objective in the VR area by managing its hippocampal activity.