🚀 go-pugleaf

r norman <rsnorman_@_comcast.net> wrote in message news:<7q60cv8nmpgth7v2g4rqkbn4o33os3de8v@4ax.com>...
> On Mon, 12 May 2003 23:09:11 +0200, Jean-Michel Friedt
> <friedtj@imec.be> wrote:
> 
> >> I heard once that someone somewhere somehow got a neuron to adhere to
> >> a silicon chip, and that the next stage would be for them to communicate
> >> with each other.
> >
> >There were a lot of presentation at the 49th meeting of the
> >Americal Vacuum Society about oriented neural growth and 
> >interfacing with electrodes. I can be done, but it's neither 
> >trivial nor reliable (having the neuron grow along an electrode 
> >does not mean it will make an electrical connexion).
> >
> >A short summary of the presentation I attended is available
> >at http://mmyotte.free.fr/chua/avs_summary.pdf, which provides
> >some names/web pages/litterature references on the topic.
> >
> >Jean-Michel
> 
> And also getting tissue cultured cells to grow along a silicon
> substrate is a lot different from trying to interface to cells inside
> a real, living brain.

Actually, what I was thinking was more along the lines of something
interfacing with the nerve stub in the stump, which, admittedly
is a little off-topic for the thread. According to what I know
about it, a severed nerve "wants" to grow back, and one doctor
told me that they do a millimeter a week. So what we'd need to 
do is find something to do to an interface chip that makes it
"look" (or feel) like a dendrite to the live neuron. I'd be
quite reluctant having something implanted in my skull (although
if, God forbid, I were struck blind, I might change my tune), but
I think if I lost a limb I'd be happy to have scientists experiment
with my stump.

As long as they can do it painlessly.

I'm also fascinated by the "phantom limb" phenomenon, and I think
it'd be neater than a rat to see if a phantom limb makes a Kirlian
photograph image.

Cheers!
Rich