Neuron to Artificial Neuron Communication Over the Internet

A research topic of personal interest is communication and knowledge that is mediated by or contained in electrical impulses, magnetic pulses, pizeoelectric phase transitions in axons of neurons and chemicals (RNA). Researchers have been able to establish communication between human minds and the minds of animals and machines and between animals. A discussion on some of this is here.

Scientists are now reporting that they are able to establish communication over the internet between neurons grown in the lab and connected to each other by synapses and synthetic neurons on silicone microchips that include newly designed artificial synapses. Science Daily writes: "the scientists created a hybrid neural network where biological and artificial neurons in different parts of the world were able to communicate with each other over the internet through a hub of artificial synapses made using cutting-edge nanotechnology. This is the first time the three components [neurons, artificial neurons and artificial synapses] have come together in a unified network."

Prior research has shown that a human brian with embedded electrodes can communicate with machines, e.g, allowing a completely paralyzed person to fly a modern fighter jet on a simulator. Mouse to mouse communication where one mouse teaches another over the internet how to find food also relied on electrode implants in the brain. Human minds have been able to transmit commands to rat minds via the internet, a project the US military has been working on. One key to various mind-to-mind communications is based on brain-electrode technology, a now rapidly advancing area of research.

This research extends what is now possible to do. Now, artificial and biological neurons are able to communicate bidirectionally in real time. This is a new avenue for neural interfaces research. One of the researchers commented: "On one side it sets the basis for a novel scenario that was never encountered during natural evolution, where biological and artificial neurons are linked together and communicate across global networks; laying the foundations for the Internet of Neuro-electronics. On the other hand, it brings new prospects to neuroprosthetic technologies, paving the way towards research into replacing dysfunctional parts of the brain with AI chips."

The peer-reviewed paper is entitled, Memristive synapses connect brain and silicon spiking neurons, which was published February 25, 2020. Chatter between the real and artificial neurons occurred between labs in Italy (real neurons), Switzerland (artificial neurons) and England (artificial synapses called memristors).