French researchers are

French researchers are reporting that they revived human brain tissue post-mortem and used it to run a robot. It was capable of forming new memories and acting upon them. And yes, this is very fascinating and makes me deeply uncomfortable. We've seen some major advancements when it comes to reviving post-mortem tissue, and there's a number of reasons why you would want to do this in the case of a brain. This is really a research platform, so you have something that you can experiment on that is not an actual person. I do need to say that to Bex Org, they may have revived chemical activity, but the brain is not functional. It's not learning anything. But that's not our next study. Now, this was just announced that it came from a well-respected robotics institute in France, LIRMM. And yes, I checked because I too was in disbelief. Before we move forward, I do want to remind people that these are subsections of cortex. They are not whole brains. Although it does seem that whole brains could be used with combined research with brain in a vat, i.e. Bexorg. They took subsections of human cortex just hours after somebody had expired and then oxygenated it to keep cellular activity. Then they used the same mechanisms that we use brain organoids to hook up flat-grown brains to a robot. They have a bidirectional flow in which electricity can stimulate and then the nerves can communicate back with the robot, even though the person who used to contain said brain is no longer alive. They were able to elicit electrical activity, and it also demonstrated sensory motor learning. So they used it to control that electrical hand. Every time it gave the correct impulse, control the hand, that hand would play a note on the piano. They started with a process called motor babbling, in which babies learn, got random impulses, those impulses could be associated with a note. Then they taught it how to play certain notes. So once it got the correct one, electrical stimulation, reinforcing that neural pathway. In this way, the robotic hand learned to play certain orders on the piano, and it had feedback so that the brain could know what it was actually playing. And then they wanted to see if it could learn something new. So they had a human actually play notes on a piano, it would be fed into the microphone and then back to the robot brain complex. Yeah. The brain was able to learn a brand new song, even though it is not in a body, even though it is listening through an interface that they are not familiar with, and even though a robot arm? Yeah, it was able to learn. This shows that even post-mortem, the brain is active. It can still learn new things. That means that the end of, biological life is not the end of what our brain is capable of. And that is important information. Did this paper make me stare at the roof for a good hour, contemplating the meaning of life and suffering? Yes, yes, it did. I hope you enjoyed this. I will keep you up to date on the cutting edge. Follow for more.