The implantation of a geomagnetic compass into the rat brain was successful



    Why vision if a digital compass sensitive to the geomagnetic field is built into the brain? Experiments have shown that animals are able to quickly adapt to a new implant in the brain - and acquire a sixth sense, which largely replaces vision. Perhaps in the future such gadgets will begin to be introduced into the brain of people. Imagine that in complete darkness a person calmly navigates the terrain, as rats do in the labyrinth of Tokyo University .

    The 2.5-gram neuro prosthesis in the Japanese experiment consisted of a geomagnetic compass and two electrodes that connect to areas of the visual cortex of the brain where visual information is processed.

    If the rat turns north (in the 20 ° sector), an electrical impulse is sent to the region of the right eye. If it turns south, the electrode from the other hemisphere is triggered. Thus, gradually the rat makes a map of the terrain in his mind, although he does not have any visual information.



    After several days of experiments in a T-shaped labyrinth, at one end of which there was food, rats learned to find food very quickly in 80% of cases. This corresponds to the indicator for sighted rats.



    A similar situation was observed in the more complex L-shaped labyrinth with four false moves.



    Of course, first of all, such implants are designed for blind people, so that they can somehow orient themselves in space. After them, you can think about a cybernetic upgrade for soldiers, rescuers and other professionals for whom such functionality is important.

    The results of the study are published in the journal Current Biology.

    “My dream is that people will be able to expand their sensory abilities with artificial sensors that are sensitive to geomagnetism, ultraviolet, radio waves, ultrasound and so on,” says Yuji Ikegaya(池 谷 裕 二), head of the University of Tokyo science team, in an interview with New Scientist magazine, which introduces rat implants. “Ultrasonic sensors and radio transmitters in the brain can take human-to-human communication to a new level.”

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