[Reading Science] The Fusion of Brain and Electronic Circuits... Is the Cyborg Era Coming?

Is the reality of a ‘cyborg’?a fusion of the human brain and electronic circuits?coming closer? The dawn of bio-computers that connect human brain tissue with computers has begun. The scientific community is highly attentive to the possibility that, combined with the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI), a new form of humanity merging humans and machines could emerge.

Recently, a paper on a bio-computer composed of lab-grown brain organoids (miniature organ tissues) and electronic circuits was published in the scientific journal Nature. This system, called ‘Brainoware,’ recognized human voices.

The research team connected small brain organoids cultured in the lab to a board equipped with thousands of electrodes. They then sent data to the brain in the form of a series of electrical signals and interpreted the returned signals using machine learning algorithms.

The experiment showed that Brainoware recognized the voices of eight individuals. The brain tissue identified that the eight voices received through the electronic circuits were different and responded differently. After repeated AI training, Brainoware was able to identify who was speaking with about 78% accuracy.

Feng Guo, a professor at Indiana University and co-author of the paper, explained in an interview with Nature that the purpose of this research was "to build a bridge between AI and the human brain." He stated that the goal is to enable the human brain to support AI in enhancing the efficiency and speed of information processing. Professor Guo expressed, "We questioned whether the neural networks in our brains could be utilized by computers," and he expects that bio-computers could perform tasks on behalf of AI in the future.

Nera Smirnova, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, evaluated this study as confirming the theoretical foundation for realizing bio-computers, since brain tissue secured its first response in a three-dimensional format rather than two-dimensional.

Nature reported that this research is expected to become a new method for studying the human brain by replicating structures in laboratory environments, not only for neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, which is a problem of the human brain, but also for other neurological disorders.

The Indiana University research team is also making efforts to create brain organoids capable of reproducing human brain activity and functions. The university is actively working on linking the brain with semiconductor chips.

There are clear limitations to this research. First, culturing brain organoids is costly and involves a complex process. It is necessary to keep the organoids alive, which becomes increasingly difficult as the cells grow larger. Larger organoid tissues are needed for more complex research, but this is not easy. Currently, only parts of brain tissue are used, and it is practically impossible to convert the entire human brain into electronic circuits.

It is also still unknown whether brain organoids can adapt to more complex tasks. Such processes are essential to link semiconductor chips with brain organoids. Nature analyzed that although there will be many challenges in advancing this research, it is meaningful as the emergence of a new field of bio-computers.

South Korea has also succeeded in producing brain organoids. In 2021, the Nano-Medicine Research Group at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) developed a ‘brain organoid culture platform’ that replicates an environment similar to the actual human brain and produced a ‘mini brain.’ It was close to the brain level of a newborn and achieved results more than twice as large as previous efforts.

The research team overcame the problem of cell death caused by difficulty in supplying oxygen and nutrients to the center as the organoids grew larger, due to the culture scaffold mainly used for brain organoids differing from the brain’s protein components and failing to replicate the environment necessary for brain development, by using nanotechnology. This enabled the production of artificial brains that are significantly larger and more developed than before.

The team developed a jelly-like ‘three-dimensional hydrogel’ similar to the brain’s microenvironment and conducted brain organoid culture experiments. As a result, the neuroepithelium forming the cerebral cortex developed, generating a large number of brain folds. Additionally, various brain cells such as neurons, astrocytes, and microglia were expressed more abundantly than with previous methods, leading to more mature brain structure and function. The researchers confirmed that the organoids grew up to 8 mm in size depending on the experiment.