Potter Lab

Multi-electrode array in hand

One of nine research groups in the Laboratory for Neuroengineering, the Potter Group is developing new neuroscience technologies for studying learning and memory in vitro. We grow mammalian brain cells in culture on multi-electrode arrays (MEAs), to form a long-term, two-way interface between the cultured networks and a computer. The cultured nets can serve as the ‘brain’ of simulated animats or robotic creatures. We call these Hybrots, hybrids of living and robotic components. By re-embodying cultured networks, we can allow them to express behaviors, and hopefully, to learn via interactions with their environment. We study distributed network dynamics and neural plasticity using both recording and stimulation, combined with optical microscopy. We are combining functional and morphological dynamics using 2-photon fluorescence time-lapse imaging, and high-speed imaging of neural activity with voltage-sensitive optical membrane probes.

Main lab web page: http://www.neuro.gatech.edu/groups/potter/index.html