The human brain is still a mystery in many ways and scientists all over the world are working hard to unlock its complex secrets. At University College London research fellow Dr Neil Burgess uses
a small robot (pictured) to help him understand the intricacies of the navigational and memory aspects of the brain. Roborat simulates the behaviour of a rat as it roams around foraging for food.
Totally unratlike in appearance, it does act in a very similar way to a rodent getting its bearings in an unfamiliar environment. Burgess has combined investigations using the rat with experiments
involving a computer game. The blood flow in the brains of human volunteers as they wandered around a highly realistic virtual reality town was monitored to assess what was going on in their heads as
they did so. The results produced indicated that human and rat brains share more in common than had previously been thought.
E-Mail: n.burgess@UCL.ac.uk
Freitag, 21. Mai 1999