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A very common question I get is what people can do DIY to start working on brain-machine interfaces. The answer is not EEG. For AI all you need is a big GPU, but for BMI it's much harder to get started. I have a new suggestion though: 1/n
Long story short, you can't build an interesting BMI for *you* at home or in a school lab. But you *can* culture some neurons and talk to them! 2/n
The skills you'll develop doing in vitro neural recording and stim are far more translatable and useful than anything you'd do with eg OpenBCI. 3/n
Though I was lucky enough to get to work in a monkey lab in college, these were the kinds of projects I was doing at home. They're not trivial and are harder than they look, but are totally doable with enough persistence. 4/n
They're also not free, but aren't prohibitively expensive; probably similar to a nice EEG headset, or 2 high end GPUs. There's a ton of open source hardware and software that have made this a lot more accessible since I was doing these things at home too. 5/n
The classic paper that got me into this is "The Neurally Controlled Animat" by DeMarse, Wagenaar, Blau and Potter (2001): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2440704/
There's also a JoVE video where they walk you through the cell culture protocol: https://www.jove.com/v/2056/how-to-culture-record-stimulate-neuronal-networks-on-micro-electrode 6/n
There's also a JoVE video where they walk you through the cell culture protocol: https://www.jove.com/v/2056/how-to-culture-record-stimulate-neuronal-networks-on-micro-electrode 6/n
You can order E18 rat cortex from BrainBits (yes, really): http://www.brainbitsllc.com/brainbits-complete-culturing-kit-cortex/
Be prepared to go through several of these kits before you get it down. Also, since neurons are post-mitotic you'll need to order more for each new experiment. 7/n
Be prepared to go through several of these kits before you get it down. Also, since neurons are post-mitotic you'll need to order more for each new experiment. 7/n
Keep in mind you'll need a bunch of other basic cell biology stuff, like pipettors, gloves, various reagents, and a clean ventilated space. The methods sections in the papers above have all the details. Should be ~$500 altogether on eBay or otherwise scrounged up. 8/n
The Open Ephys hardware is great, if maybe out of the budget of college students. But maybe get together with a couple friends? https://open-ephys.org/store
Or, for the EE inclined, you can layout a super cheap board order the Intan chips directly: http://intantech.com/ 9/n
Or, for the EE inclined, you can layout a super cheap board order the Intan chips directly: http://intantech.com/ 9/n
Anyway, maybe I'll write up a longer post on how to get started in DIY neuroengineering that actually builds useful knowledge and skills if there's interest. This field will be like 10x the size it is now in a couple years, which means we need a much larger community! 10/end
