6. Microchips for your brain???
Microchips for your brain???
Sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction. A group of American scientists have developed the first artificial region of the brain – a silicon chip that mimics an area of the brain that controls memory, mood, and awareness. Devised by researchers at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, the chip is designed to carry on the functions of the region known as the hippocampus, and could one day be used to help people with brain damage. Plans are to have it first tested on tissue from rats brains, and then on live animals.
"If all goes well, it will then be tested in a way to help people who have suffered brain damage due to stroke, epilepsy or Alzheimer's disease," New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday.
Dr. Thomas Westhall and his team developed the artificial hippocampus as a test case to see if it could be done. It has taken them nearly ten years. First, they devised a mathematical model of how the hippocampus performs under all conditions. The next step involved building the model into a silicon chip and then interfacing the chip with the brain in laboratory studies.
"No one understands how the hippocampus encodes information. So the team simply copied its behavior," the magazine reported.
If the initial tests are successful, Westhall and his colleagues plan to begin trials in live rats within six months, and later in monkeys.
"If you lose your hippocampus you only lose the ability to store new memories," Westhall told the magazine. He added that if the chip, which will sit on the outside of the skull, helps someone with a damaged hippocampus regain the ability to store new memories it will be proof that it works.
But, the magazine warned that because the device would affect memory and mood, which are fundamental to identity, it raises ethical and consent issues.
"If someone can't form new memories, then to what extent can they give consent to have the implant?" the magazine added.
Questions
Choose the best explanation for the following words and phrases from the text...
- in this case, "device" refers to:
- "initial tests" means:
- "consent issues" are:
- "how the hippocampus encodes information" means:
- "the chip mimics an area of the brain" means:
Are the following statements about the reading true or false?
1. The silicon chip will be implanted in the brain, in the same area where the hippocampus is found.
2. Scientists plan to test the chip on rats for six months before moving on to tests on monkeys.
3. The chip is designed to help people who have already suffered brain damage, not to prevent it in the future.
4. Ten years of research have helped scientists determine how the hippocampus functions.
5. The hippocampus is important because it helps control the ability to make decisions.