While our bodies are perfectly capable of healing itself, there are certain things that we just cannot recover from. However, as medical technology is progressing, certain parts of our bodies can soon be replaced with artificial creations. Take for example our eyes, where we are starting to insert lenses into them to improve eyesight.That being said, why can’t the same be done for our neurons as well? That’s what researchers at the University of Bath, Universities of Bristol, Zurich, and Auckland have done where they have created what could possibly be the world’s first artificial neuron on a chip that could potentially behave like the real thing.
By creating artificial neurons, the idea is that it could be used to replace our real neurons in the event that they start to fail or no longer work properly, such as in the case of spinal cord injuries. It can also be used to combat heart failure, where neurons in the base on the brain do not respond properly to the nervous system feedback, thus preventing the heart from pumping as hard as it should.
According to Professor Alain Nogaret, from the University of Bath Department of Physics, “For example we’re developing smart pacemakers that won’t just stimulate the heart to pump at a steady rate but use these neurons to respond in real time to demands placed on the heart—which is what happens naturally in a healthy heart. Other possible applications could be in the treatment of conditions like Alzheimer’s and neuronal degenerative diseases more generally.”
Filed in . Read more about AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Science. Source: techxplore