美国国家公共电台 NPR--A dish full of brain cells has learned to play the computer game Pong

A dish full of brain cells has learned to play the computer game Pong

Transcript¹

Human brain cells in a dish have learned to play Pong, a simple video game created in the 1970s. This novel achievement is part of a larger effort to understand how brain cells learn.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

A dish full of brain cells has learned to play the computer game Pong.

(SOUNDBITE OF BEEPING)

MARTINEZ: That's right - the original table tennis arcade² game from the 1970s. NPR's Jon Hamilton reports that this novel achievement is part of a larger effort to understand how brain cells learn.

JON HAMILTON, BYLINE³: A living brain has a kind of intelligence that a computer usually lacks. Take, for example, the average person's ability to make a cup of tea, says Brett Kagan, the chief scientific officer of Cortical Labs in Melbourne, Australia.

BRETT KAGAN: You might have never been in someone else's house, but with a bit of rummaging⁴ and searching you can probably make a decent cup of tea as long as they've got the ingredients.

HAMILTON: But even a powerful computer would struggle with that task. So Cortical Labs has been trying to understand how living brain cells acquire their intelligence. Kagan says the Pong experiment was a way for the company to answer a central question about a network of brain cells.

KAGAN: If we do allow these cells to know the outcome of their actions, will they actually be able to change in some sort of goal-directed way?

HAMILTON: To find out, the scientists used a system that links a network of brain cells to a computer. First, the computer generated a game of Pong. Then it began sending signals to the cells, telling them where the ball was. At the same time, Kagan says, the computer began monitoring signals sent by the cells.

KAGAN: And what we did is we took that information, and we allowed it to influence this Pong game that they were playing so they could move the paddle around.

HAMILTON: The cells just had to figure out how to control the paddle's movement. To help them learn, Kagan says, the scientists provided the cells with something you might call motivation. It came in the form of electrical stimulation⁵.

KAGAN: If they hit the ball, we gave them something predictable - so very simple, predictable stimulus⁶ was the same every time. When they missed it, they got something that was totally unpredictable - white noise, a different white noise every time.

HAMILTON: Brain cells like predictable stimulation. So they began to learn how to send signals that would move the paddle in front of the ball. The brain cells never got that good, but human brain cells seemed to play a bit better than mouse brain cells. And Kagan says they all did pretty well, considering that the entire network contained fewer cells than the brain of a cockroach⁷.

KAGAN: If you could see a cockroach playing a game of Pong and it was able to hit the ball twice as often as it was missing it, you would be pretty impressed with that cockroach.

HAMILTON: Kagan says the results, which appear in the journal Neuron, hint at a future in which biology helps computers become more intelligent. But Steve M. Potter, an adjunct associate professor at Georgia Tech, says that future is probably still a long way off.

STEVE M POTTER: The idea of a computer that has some living components⁸ is exciting, and it's starting to become reality. However, the kinds of learning that these things can accomplish is quite rudimentary right now.

HAMILTON: Even so, Potter says, the Pong-playing system is a great tool for doing research.

POTTER: This is sort of a semi-living animal model that one can use to study all sorts of mechanisms⁹ in the nervous system.

HAMILTON: Including learning.

Jon Hamilton, NPR News.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 arcade   

n.拱廊；(一侧或两侧有商店的)通道

参考例句：

• At this time of the morning,the arcade was almost empty.在早晨的这个时候，拱廊街上几乎空无一人。
• In our shopping arcade,you can find different kinds of souvenir.在我们的拱廊市场，你可以发现许多的纪念品。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 rummaging   

翻找，搜寻( rummage的现在分词 )； 海关检查

参考例句：

• She was rummaging around in her bag for her keys. 她在自己的包里翻来翻去找钥匙。
• Who's been rummaging through my papers? 谁乱翻我的文件来着？

5 stimulation   

n.刺激，激励，鼓舞

参考例句：

• The playgroup provides plenty of stimulation for the children.幼儿游戏组给孩子很多启发。
• You don't get any intellectual stimulation in this job.你不能从这份工作中获得任何智力启发。

6 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。

7 cockroach   

n.蟑螂

参考例句：

• A cockroach can live several weeks with its head off.蟑螂在头被切掉后仍能活好几个星期。
• She screamed when she found a cockroach in her bed.她在床上找到一只蟑螂时大声尖叫。

8 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。

9 mechanisms   

n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 )；机械装置；[生物学] 机制；机械作用

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms. 这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He explained how the two mechanisms worked. 他解释这两台机械装置是如何工作的。 来自《简明英汉词典》