Scientists teach lab-grown brain cells on a silicon chip to play Pong

Pong was the first-ever video game created by Physicist William Higinbotham in October 1958, which was later released on an Atari arcade machine in 1972. Today, 50 years later, the game can be played by human brain cells receiving electrical signals fired by scientists.

Dr. Brett Kagan, a scientist from Cortical Labs, claims to have created the first "sentient" lab-grown brain, which can play Pong, although not very well. Scientists call it the "Mini-brain," which was initially produced in 2013, but has been plugged in and interacted with for the first time.

“The neurons could adapt the activity to a changing environment, in a goal-oriented way, in real-time.”

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800,000 human brain cells have learned how to play Pong in five minutes

The research team managed to grow 800,000 human brain cells from stem cells and mouse embryos, and connected them to Pong, the video game, using electrodes. The Pong game was one-sided, with the paddle playing against the wall.

The electrodes transferred information about which side the ball was on and how far it was from the paddle. In response, the cells produced electrical activity of their own and expended energy to recalibrate the paddle to where the ball was coming to. As the game went on, less and less energy was expended as the mini-brain learned to play the game.

Image under an electron microscope of neural culture that has grown over six months (Image via Dr. Brett Kagan)

According to the research team, the mini-brain is more adaptable than current AI systems as it learned to play Pong without being taught, and is likely to become more complex as research continues. The team hopes that as this technology develops, it can be used to treat neurodivergent diseases like Alzheimer's.

The mini-brain often missed the ball, and its success rate was more random than consistent, but it learned to play the game in five minutes. After 20 minutes of playing Pong, the mini-brain became better at it, with the scientists indicating that the cells were reorganizing, developing networks, and learning. Experts called the work "exciting," and Dr. Kagan stated:

"We could find no better term to describe the device. It is able to take in information from an external source, process it and then respond to it in real time. They changed their activity in a way that is very consistent with them actually behaving as a dynamic system."

He further talked about how the cells' ability to adapt improves over time:

"For example, the neurons’ ability to change and adapt their activity as a result of experience increases over time, consistent with what we see with the cells’ learning rate.”

Dr. Kagan later plans to infuse alcohol and medicines into the situation to test whether there is any impact on the cells' ability to play the game. This way, it can be tested to see whether the mini-brain can be treated as a stand-in for the human mind. But similar to the human brain, it should underscore under the influence of alcohol and not be as effective as before.