Researchers Develop Active Mini Brain Networks | Cerebral organoids are cultivated artificially, 3D tissue culture that resembles human brain. Now, researchers report success with functional neural networks obtained from these organisms. Although organoids is not really 'thinking', the new tool of researchers - which detects nerve activity using organoids - can provide a method for understanding the human brain function.
Jun Takahashi, a professor of Kyoto University, says, "Because they can mimic the development of the brain, brain development can be used as a substitute for human brain for complex development and study of neurological disorders."
However, these studies are challenging because the present cerebral organoids lack the desirable supportive structures, such as blood vessels and surrounding tissues, Takahashi. Since researchers have a limited ability to assess organoids neuronal activity, it is also difficult to evaluate the function of the neuronal network on a large scale.
"In our study, we created a new functional analysis tool to assess the dynamic change of network activity in a known area, which reflects the activities of more than 1,000 cells," first and co-authored writer Hidaya Sakguchi, A postdoctoral fellows are called Kyoto University (currently at the Salk Institute). "The exciting thing about this study is that we were able to detect dynamic changes in calcium ion activity and visualize comprehensive cell activities."
In order to generate organogenous, Takahashi, Sakaguchi, and his team created a ball of pluripotent stem cells, which has the ability to differentiate between different body tissues. Then, they put the cells in a dish filled with culture, which used to mimic the environment necessary for the development of the brain. Using organoids, the team successfully imagined synchronized and non-synchronized activities between network and connection between individual neurons. Synchronized neural activity may be the basis for various brain functions, which includes memory.
"We believe that our work introduces the possibility of a comprehensive evaluation of human cell derived nerve activity," says Sakguchi. The law can help the researchers to understand the processes through which the information in the brain is encoded through the activity of specific cell populations, as well as the underlying basic mechanisms of mental illness.
Although cerebral organoids provides a means for the study of the human brain, ethical concerns have already been raised about the nerve function of cerebral organoids.
"Because Cerebral imitates the development process, the issue of concern is that they also have mental activities like consciousness in the future," says Sakguchi. "Some people have cited the famous 'mind-in-vata' idea proposed by Hillary Putnam, that in the brain of a life-sustaining liquid in relation to the computer, the mind can be consciously similar to that of a person."
However, Takahashi and Sakaguchi believe that consciousness is not likely to develop in cerebral organoids because there is a lack of input from the environment around them.
"Consciousness requires empirical experience, and without sensory tissues, cerebral organoids will not have sensory input and motor output," says Sakguchi. "However, if cerebrals are arranged with an input and output system, in which ethical considerations are required, then the core and applied research of these cerebral organoids will become a tremendous moral challenge."
Takahashi says, in the future, applied organoids research will detect three main areas - drug discovery, modeling neuropactic disorders and regenerative medicine.
They say, "Cerebral organoids can make great progress for pharmacological companies by changing traditional animal models and can also be used for abnormal neurological diseases," he says. "Using our methodology, it will be possible to analyze the cell activity patterns in brain functions to detect these areas."
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