Scientists Implant a Robot Brain in a Rat

You may have to think about this one a bit longer.

Scientists at Tel Avive University claim to have implanted a "robotic cerebellum" into the skull of a rat with brain damage. The cerebellum, which is responsible for coordinating movement, effectively restored the animal's ability to move.

The implanted chip was designed to mimic natural neuronal activity. "It's a proof of the concept that we can record information from the brain, analyze it in a way similar to the biological network, and then return it to the brain," said Matti Mintz, who recently presented his research at the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence meeting in Cambridge, UK. 

Mintz explained that the artificial brain was tested by teaching the brain-damaged rat to blink whenever they sounded a particular tone. According to the scientists, the rat could only blink when the robotic cerebellum was active.

In the future, the researchers hope that the "robo-cerebellum" could lead to electronic implants that replace damaged tissues in the human brain.