The researchers connected the neurons – the cells responsible for receiving sensory input from the outside world and sending motor commands to muscles – of humans and mice to a computer, where the neurons were alerted when their paddle touched the ball.
Using electrical probes, the scientists monitored the neurons’ activity and responses and recorded the results as “spikes” on a grid, where the more a neuron moved a paddle and hit the ball, the stronger the spikes became. The scientists used software to analyze the cases in which the neurons were missing. In an article published Wednesday in the journal Neuron, the researchers claim they were able to demonstrate that “neurons can adjust their activity in real time and in a targeted manner to a changing environment”
“From worms to flies to humans, neurons are the cornerstone of generalized intelligence,” first author Brett Kagan, chief scientific officer at Cortical Labs in Melbourne, Australia, said in a statement. “So the question was, can we interact with neurons to harness this inherent intelligence
Kagan said the team chose Pong because of its simplicity and familiarity, adding that it was one of the first games used in machine learning. His team is now testing other games.
Kagan told CNN that in the short term, the technology could be used for “better drug discovery, disease modeling, and understanding how intelligence arises – which in turn could be used to develop new algorithms for machine learning.”“It touches on the fundamental aspects of not only what it means to be human but what it means to be alive and intelligent at all, to process information and be sentient in an ever changing, dynamic world,” Kagan added.
In the longer term, he believes it could “form the backbone of a new type of information processor,” to be used in areas like robotics, where processing information is critical.Two of the paper’s authors, as well as Hon Weng Chong, the founder of Cortical Labs and lead researcher, have various patents pending on the Pong-playing neurons, Kagan told CNN, adding that the company hopes to build devices using synthetic biological systems.This isn’t the first time researchers have used Pong when studying brain capabilities.Last year, Neuralink, the implant company owned by SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, released a video in which a monkey appears to play Pong using only its mind.The 9-year-old male macaque, named Pager, had a Neuralink device implanted in both sides of its brain, according to a YouTube video posted by the company.Neuralink is developing Bluetooth-enabled implantable chips that can communicate with computers via a small receiver, and has previously demonstrated the technology in pigs.