Creating a cyborg mouse using cranial nerve circuits that induce possessive behaviors

KAIST Professor Phill-Seung Lee of  Mechanical Engineering and Professor Dae-Soo Kim of Bioscience and Biotechnology revealed that the part of the brain’s hypothalamus called the MPA (Medial Preoptic Area) produces instincts to acquire and possess objects. Using this discovery, they developed a cyborg mouse that is controlled by a computer algorithm with optogenetics technology and visual cues.

Article  |  Fall 2018

A team of Korean researchers created an ingenious cyborg mouse by tapping into a brain circuit involved in investigating new objects or chasing prey. They outfitted each mouse with headgear that served a dual purpose: it held a fiber optic thread that penetrated the skull to stimulate that object-craving region of the brain (via a stimulation technique called optogenetics), and it also suspended an object in front of the mouse’s head. The researchers describe their system in the journal of Nature Neuroscience.

Professor Dae-Soo Kim of Bioscience and Biotechnology and Professor Phill-Seung Lee of the Mechanical Engineering revealed that some of the brain’s hypothalamus called the MPA (Medial Preoptic Area) produces instincts to acquire and possess objects. They also developed a technique that can control the behaviors and habits of animals using the former visual cues.

The researchers found that the MPA is closely related to the obsession with and possessiveness of goods, and then they started developing the technology to control the. The mouse is equipped with an object on the head that is controlled wirelessly so that it can move left and right in front of the eye. The researchers stimulate the MPA-PAG nerve circuit so that the mouse follows the object in front of the eye. This technology, which the team called MIDAS, manipulates the behavior of high organisms, specifically mammals, in the desired direction.

 

They designed an algorithm based on real-time tracking of the animal’s head direction and object position in order to automatically direct the orientation of the head-mounted object. Using this algorithm, they were also able to optogenetically stimulate CAMKIIα+ MPA→vPAG neurons only when the object was aligned with the intended route, leading the mouse to ‘chase’ the object along a specific route around a novel complex maze. To test it out, they made a cyborg male mouse navigate through a maze with seven different components, including both physical challenges like a mesh ladder and the distractors of a female mouse in a cage and a dish of objects. The results show that the mouse made a series of straight movements and decisive turns, exactly following the path charted by the researchers.

 

The object-obsessed mouse is Professor Lee’s second type of steerable creature. Last year, his team created a cyborg turtle by mounting a gadget on the animal’s shell and guiding it with a clever combination of LED lights and tasty treats. Professor Lee said that there is a good reason to create machine-animal hybrids that are under human control: they combine the compliance of a robot with the natural smarts and endurance of animals.

Professor Lee said, “MIDAS technology is an autonomous driving system that uses animals’ navigation instincts to overcome obstacles. Think of it as an important innovation in brain-computer access technology. I hope there will be a lot of support for such studies in Korea in the future.”

Research Introduction Video (YouTube link): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgo9iSO4yBc&t=35s