Robotic Cerebellum Implanted in Rat to Repair Motor Function

With new groundbreaking technology aimed at providing amputees with robotic limbs, a Tel Aviv University researcher has successfully implanted a robotic cerebellum into the skull of a rodent with brain damage, restoring its capacity for movement.

The cerebellum is responsible for coordinating movement, explained Prof. Matti Mintz from Tel Aviv University’s (TAU; Israel) department of psychology. When wired to the brain, his “robo-cerebellum” receives, interprets, and transmits sensory data from the brain stem, facilitating communication between the brain and the body. To evaluate this robotic interface between body and brain, the researchers taught a brain-damaged rodent to blink whenever they sounded a specific tone. The rat could only perform the behavior when its robotic cerebellum was functional.

According to the researcher, the chip is designed to mimic natural neuronal activity. “It’s a proof of the concept that we can record information from the brain, analyze it in a way similar to the biological network, and then return it to the brain,” said Prof. Mintz, who recently presented his research at the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence meeting in Cambridge (UK).

This robocerebellum could someday lead to electronic implants that replace damaged tissues in the human brain, according to the researchers.

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