hybrot consists of a cultured neuronal network, a robot, and a sensory-motor loop. In order to embody a
cultured network for goal-directed learning, these fundamental elements are needed for closing the sensory-motor loop: A. Decoding: network activity recorded from the cultured network is transformed into the robot’s motor commands. B. Encoding: the interaction between the robot and its environment is detected by the robot’s sensors and transformed into an electrical stimulation fed back to the cultured network. C. The behavioral performance is also transformed into stimulation based on a training algorithm. (Chao 2007)
Below, you can download the work of my grad students, their dissertations and theses, which earned them their advanced degrees. Much of this work is unpublished or has more details than what is in our published papers, so if the topics are of interest to you, these are worth reading! All of these were successfully defended by the students, and read and approved by their thesis committees and me. I am compiling these here because they are archived at several universities, and may be hard to find. My lab was formed at Caltech in 1998, moved to Georgia Tech in 2002, and my department, Biomedical Engineering, is shared between Georgia Tech and Emory University.
- Daniel A. Wagenaar, “Development and Control of Epileptiform Bursting in Dissociated Cortical Cultures” 2005 (Caltech PhD dissertation, co-advised by Jerry Pine)(Abstract)
- Radhika Madhavan, “Role of Spontaneous Bursts in Functional Plasticity and Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Dissociated Cortical Cultures” 2007 (Georgia Tech PhD dissertation)(Abstract)
- Zenas C. Chao, “Toward the Neurocomputer: Goal-directed Learning in Embodied Cultured Networks” 2007 (Georgia Tech PhD dissertation)(Abstract)
- Douglas J. Bakkum, “Dynamics of Embodied Dissociated Cortical Cultures for the Control of Hybrid Biological Robots” 2007 (Georgia Tech PhD dissertation)(Abstract)
- Komal Rambani, “Thick Brain Slice Cultures and a Custom-Fabricated Multiphoton Imaging System: Progress Towards Development of a 3D Hybrot Model” 2007 (Georgia Tech Masters thesis)(Abstract)
- John D. Rolston, “Multielectrode Interactions with the Normal and Epileptic Brain” 2009 (Emory University MD/PhD dissertation, Co-advised with Robert Gross)(Abstract)
- Sharanya Arcot Desai, “Multielectrode Microstimulation for Temporal Lobe Epilepsy” 2013 (Georgia Tech PhD dissertation)(Abstract)
- Robert L. Ortman, “Sensory Input Encoding and Readout Methods for In Vitro Living Neuronal Networks” 2012 (Georgia Tech Masters thesis)(Abstract)
- Nathan J. Killian, “Bioelectrical Dynamics of the Entorhinal Cortex” 2013 (Georgia Tech and Emory University PhD dissertation, Co-advised with Elizabeth Buffalo)(Abstract)
- Michelle L. Kuykendal, “Closed-loop Optimization of Extracellular Electrical Stimulation for Targeted Neuronal Activation” 2014 (Georgia Tech PhD dissertation, Co-advised with Stephen DeWeerth)(Abstract)
- Jonathan P. Newman, “Optogenetic Feedback Control of Neural Activity” 2013 (Georgia Tech PhD dissertation)(Abstract)
- Ming-fai Fong, “The Role of Excitatory Neurotransmission in the Induction of Homeostatic Synaptic Plasticity” 2014 (Emory University PhD dissertation, co-advised with Peter Wenner)(Abstract)