Animat – towards closed loop neuroscience

Animat –a closed loop system controlling a robot by biological neuronal cultures, is a novel platform allowing to investigate closed loop interactions play in shaping the nervous system, including its structure, biophysics and functionality.
In living organisms equipped with a nervous system, neurons are embedded in various closed loops with interactions via body and the environment operating such closed loop at the whole organism level. They are fundamental to animal survival, as they allow for coordination of movement and responses to external stimuli and threats, yet vast majority of neuroscience, cognitive sciences and psychology do not take into account closed loop operation in their characterisation of cognitive or neural systems.
The project will complete the hardware animal platform closing the loop between cultures grown on the Multiple Electrode Array. The data from MEA will be used to actuate a robotic device and the sensory information from this robot will in turn be providing information about the corresponding culture stimulus.

The project will then explore the role of the closed loop in shaping the activity patterns and functional connectivity of cultures. Various forms of closed loop will be investigated and their effects on patterning of the network activity will be characterised. An important investigation will be into the role closed loop may play in shaping neuronal plasticity.
The research is truly interdisciplinary and involves combination of engineering skills, theoretical and experimental neuroscience.

The project will be hosted by the School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading. The University of Reading is one of the UK’s 20 most research-intensive universities and among the top 200 universities in the world. Achievements include the Queen’s Award for Export Achievement (1989) and the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education (1998, 2006 and 2009). This project will take place in the Brain Embodiment Lab within Biomedical Engineering Section of the School of Biological Sciences (SBS), which has a strong reputation for its innovative research in cybernetics, and biomedical engineering, including Brain Computer Interfaces, animats - robots controlled by cultures of living neuronal cells and cognitive robotics systems.

For informal inquiries please contact Prof SJ Nasuto, email: [Email Address Removed].