Scientists successfully created a cybernetic neural network

An international team of researchers spread out over three labs in Switzerland, Italy, and the UK have successfully joined artificial neurons and an organic neuron to form the first operational biological-artificial hybrid neural network. The team set out to recreate a classic experiment showing how neurons can "learn" by transferring information through synapses. Over time the neurons will require more or less stimulation to "fire," thus demonstrating how neural networks adapt and learn. We've studied this concept in organic neural networks such as those found in living brains, but this is the first time it's been done with both living and artificial neurons. We demonstrate a three-neuron brain-silicon network where memristive synapses undergo long-term potentiation or depression driven by neuronal firing rates.