Tim Busbice
Tim Busbice is a connectomic engineer and entrepreneur trying to discover the mysteries of nervous systems and how these complex networks give rise to behavior through simulation and real-world adaptation. Tim has combined his expertise in neurobiology and computer science to create full sensory to motor nervous system simulations and continues to grow those results into more complex inorganic organisms.
The robotic worm
Does the way a brain is wired determine how we think and behave? Recent research points to a resounding yes.
Editor’s note: this is an excerpt from the latest edition of BioCoder; it is republished here with permission. Get your free copy of BioCoder Fall 2014 here.
One of the age-old questions has been whether the way a brain is wired, negating other attributes such as intracellular systems biology, will give rise to how we think and how we behave. We are not at the point yet to answer that question regarding the human brain. However, by using the well-mapped connectome of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans, shown above), we were able to answer this question as a resounding yes, at least for simpler animals. Using a simple robot (a Lego Mindstorms EV3) and connecting sensors on the robot to stimulate specific simulated sensory neurons in an artificial connectome, and condensing worm muscle excitation to move a left and right motor on the robot, we observed worm-like behaviors in the robot based purely on environmental factors. Read more…