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title: "Good news, everyone! "Real brains need connections to the outside…"
date: 2019-09-06
source: facebook
type: Archer T. Ships shared a link.
---

# Good news, everyone! "Real brains need connections to the outside…

*September 6, 2019 · Facebook*

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[https://in.mashable.com/science/6449/scientists-create-tiny-human-brains-that-produce-brain-waves-and-hooked-them-to-spider-robots](https://in.mashable.com/science/6449/scientists-create-tiny-human-brains-that-produce-brain-waves-and-hooked-them-to-spider-robots){target="_blank"}
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Good news, everyone!\
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\"Real brains need connections to the outside world to mature properly. In 2017, Dr. Quadrato and her colleagues grew a brain organoid that included cells from the retina, making it sensitive to light.\
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Dr. Muotri and his colleagues are testing out different ways to stimulate brain organoids in order to make them develop more complex neural networks. In one experiment, they've linked organoids to a small spider-shaped robot. A computer translates an organoid's electrical activity into instructions for moving the robot's legs.\
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As the robot moves, it uses sensors to detect when it gets close to a wall. The computer relays those signals back to the organoid in the form of electrical pulses.\
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Dr. Muotri can't say yet whether these experiments will affect how brain organoids develop. The efforts may fail --- or they may produce increasingly sophisticated brain mimics that we don't fully understand.\"\
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[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/science/organoids-brain-alysson-muotri.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/science/organoids-brain-alysson-muotri.html){target="_blank"}
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