Prosthetic devices have come a long way since the hook and cable arm, the peg leg, and the ever popular eye patch. In fact, since 2007, we have seen an athlete try to compete in the Summer Olympics with metal legs, the first robotic arm controlled by a user's nervous system entered clinical trials and a complete artificial heart costs less than most people's houses - around $175,000.
However, treating neurological and mental disorders is not as easy as dealing with a physical injury. We can't look at the brain and see how it works. That would be like opening up a computer and trying to figure out which part controls the mouse. Thankfully, functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI, techniques have given us a way to chemically measure the brain. All the patient has to do is go about their normal activities and we can record the brain's chemical responses to the environment's stimuli.
This method of trying to understand and treat brain disorders and injuries is quite tedious.
Imaging techniques also give little hope for correcting serious brain injuries due to head impacts, strokes and heart attacks. Also, the data from the fMRI's must be put through computer simulations, which do not behave like a real brain. Although we have come a long way with prosthetics, until we can correct brain ailments, we are far from where we need to be.
Here is where University of Southern California electrical engineers Chongwu Zhou and Alice Parker step in. Knowing that brain imaging can only take us so far, Parker and Zhou are doing the unthinkable - making a synthetic brain.
"It may take decades to realize anything close to the human brain but emulating pieces of the brain, such as a synthetic vision system or parts of the brain's cortex will be possible within decades," Parker said.
The brain's cortex is the part most associated with motor skills and learning. The difficulties in recreating this part of the brain are because of the brain's plasticity, which is the ability for neuron's to rearrange themselves in order for the brain to stay efficient.
For instance, the brain will develop more complex circuits around the part that controls language if a child is exposed to many languages. Also, the brain is a 3-Dimensional object, so these connections constantly change in all directions; a computer model just can't emulate this process like a 3-D circuit can.
According to the National Science Foundation's Web site, Parker believes carbon nanotubes are an ideal material to emulate brain function because their 3-D structure allows connectivity in all directions on all planes and because a carbon based prosthesis is less likely to be rejected by the human body than one made from inorganic materials. But their invasive nature could result in them invading surrounding tissue and prompting lesions and cancers, she said.
Other issues include power requirements, since the brain never shuts off, and answering some of humanities age old questions such as, "What is the mind and how does it affect the brain's performance?"
Parker also believes that emotions play a huge part in the brain's ability to learn.
"Based on what I know right now, emotions would have to be included for a synthetic brain to be able to learn," Parker said. "It's important to understand their cause and effect."
There is no guarantee creating a synthetic brain will be possible, but the hope of one day curing mental illness, brain injuries and neurological disorders gives many reasons to try.
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