EEG of organoids
Scientists have grown "mini-brains" similar to the brain of a premature baby
To be more precise, on the brain activity of a premature baby. The report on the study was presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Neuroscientists and published in the preprint database bioRxiv.org (Trujillo et al., Nested oscillatory dynamics in cortical organoids model early human brain network development).
These organoids are three-dimensional, miniature, simplified versions of organs grown in the laboratory for research, for example, drug reactions or cell development under certain adverse conditions.
Neuroscientist Alisson Muotri has been developing brain organoids for several years in his laboratory at the University of California, San Diego, but this is the first time when he and his colleagues noticed activity similar to that of the human brain.
The organoids in question were grown from pluripotent stem cells. Hundreds of these little brains were grown for 10 months. During this period, they were tested to make sure that the necessary genes were expressed during their development. The researchers also constantly monitored the organoids using an electroencephalogram (EEG).
By about six months, according to Nature, the "mini-brains" showed vigorous brain activity. The analysis showed that it was not as organized and predictable as the brain activity of an adult. However, with its chaotic, synchronized bursts, the phenomenon resembled the brain activity observed in premature infants.
Despite the fact that it was not identical, a machine learning model trained on the signs of EEG of premature infants was able to identify many similar properties with a normal development schedule. It seems that over the past 28 weeks, the trajectory of the development of organoids corresponded to the development of a premature baby of the same age.
Figure from the article in bioRxiv – VM.
These brain organoids are not exactly like parts of a real human brain: they are not only smaller and simpler – they do not have other brain regions with which they would connect. They were developed taking into account the insufficient amount of protein required for normal neural function. Nevertheless, "mini-brains" can be a step towards a better understanding of brain development.
"Although we do not insist on functional equivalence between organoids and the whole brain of a newborn," the researchers write, "the current results represent a step forward to an artificial model that displays some complex spatio-temporal oscillatory dynamics of the human brain."
Researchers will continue to further develop "mini-brains" to find out if they will "grow up".
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