A new neuroscience study published this week in Neuron shows how a brain cell system grown in a laboratory dish called "DishBrain" learns to play in a computer game-world inspired by the classic arcade game of "Pong." "Harnessing the computational power of living neurons to create synthetic biological intelligence (SBI), previously confined to the realm of science fiction, may now be within reach of human innovation," wrote researchers affiliated with Cortical Labs, Monash University, The University of Melbourne, RMIT University, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and University College London who conducted the study. This is the first synthetic biological intelligence to show real-time adaptive behavior according to the researchers. To create DishBrain, researchers developed active neuronal cultures of roughly 800,000 cells consisting of cortical brain cells from laboratory mice embryos or human induced pluripotent stem cells (HiPSC) that were plated on high-density microelectrode arrays (HD-MEA) chips, then embedded in a simulated game inspired by the arcade game Pong. Human induced pluripotent stem cells (HiPSC) engineering is used to create models used for pharmaceutical drug discovery and the development of novel therapeutic treatments.