If you think the question above is the beginning of a bad joke, think again. In fact, the answer could revolutionize the way robots and autonomous vehicles operate.
Boston University neuroscientists Jake Hinman, William Chapman, and Michael Hasselmo, director of BU’s Center for Systems Neuroscience and a College of Arts & Sciences professor of psychological and brain sciences, discovered specialized brain cells in rats that provide the rodents with a personal map of their surroundings. The researchers believe human brains may have the same neurons.
The study provided valuable insights into how a brain’s navigational systems work, and the research could lead to smarter, safer autonomous vehicles and robots that can more easily navigate around obstacles.
So where does the cereal – Froot Loops, to be exact – come in?
During the study, the researchers used electrodes to track the activity in the rats’ brains as they followed crushed bits of Froot Loops across a room. As the rats hunted down the treats, brain cells deep within a portion of the brain called the striatum started firing like crazy. The cells – called egocentric boundary cells, which also help control behavior – fired in precise ways to guide the rats on their race for sugary treats.
The brain activity created something like a street-view map in the rat’s mind, allowing the rat to orient itself so it didn’t bump into walls or cover the same territory twice. The neuroscientists believe human brains react in similar ways.
The study, partially funded by a $7.5 million multidisciplinary grant from the Department of Defense, could lead to the development of technology systems that behave the same way as rat – – or human – brains. The knowledge could help with the development of search-and-rescue robots, as well as robots used in salvage operations. Equipped with technology that mimics human and rat brains, robots that explore the moon could have greater capabilities than the Mars Rover. And self-driving vehicles could navigate more effectively even on high-traffic streets, even using landmarks to find locations the automobile has visited before.
In future studies, scientists hope to explore how cells fire in response to dynamic boundaries such as moving objects, as well as landmarks, which play a crucial role in the way human beings navigate. The team also aim to discover how, or if, the cells respond in dark or low-light environments when there’s less visual stimulus for the brain to respond to.
