FOCUS ON: Reverse Engineering the Brain
Reverse Engineering the Brain In the College of Engineering, the phrase “reverse engineering the brain” tends to relate to emerging technologies in neural networks and new machine-learning models that function more like the human brain. That work relies on other research that unravels how the brain operates — how it does what it does. In this FOCUS ON: section, we present four examples of such research that is ongoing at UC Santa Barbara.
Michael Beyeler: “Fooling” The Mind To See “There is research to try to understand the brain — how it works on a mechanistic and algorithmic level — and then there’s applying that to an engineered system that can interface with the brain,” says Michael Beyeler, an assistant professor in Computer Science and Psychological & Brain Sciences, in providing context for his research, which lies in the emerging interdisciplinary field of neuroengineering. “Brain-computer interfaces can be used both for treating neurological and mental disorders as well as for understanding brain function,” he says. “Eventually, they should also allow us to restore vision to the blind.” The work involves neuroscience, computer
science, and, because subjective perception is involved, psychology. Beyeler’s research focuses on visual prostheses (aka “bionic eyes”), which are being developed for those rendered blind by diseases of the eye, such as retinitis pigmentosa or macular degeneration. “The idea is that when individuals, due to various diseases, no longer have their photoreceptors — the light-gathering cells in the back of the eye — we can replace those cells with a microelectrode array that mimics their functionality. The question is just how to stimulate the surviving cells in order to avoid confusing the brain.” Beyeler has spent the past several years
23
