Robocop is on the way of being produced. Or perhaps human brained robots are.

A new research has revealed that it's possible to store multiple rudimentary memories in a culture of live neurons. The research made by Itay Baruchi and Eshel Ben-Jacob from the Tel-Aviv University further explains how our brain stores information, but also that a "cyborg-like integration of living material into memory chips" could be possible in the future. The investigation was based on the idea that simply connecting neurons can cause spontaneous, coordinated firing, as revealed by previous studies.

The researchers induced supplementary firings through local chemical stimulations (with minute amounts from a chemical stimulant), which produced multiple, rudimentary memories preserved in the neuron network.

Neuronal stored memory was achieved by putting a chemical stimulant into the culture at a specific location which triggered a second firing pattern, starting from that location. The new firing pattern added to the original one. 24 hours later, the researchers injected other stimulants at a new location, causing a third firing.

An array of electrodes checked the firing patterns in the neuronal network, showing that the three memory patterns persisted, without interacting with each other, for over 40 hours.

Previous studies showed that coordinated neuron firing (synchronized bursting events) are "memory templates" or "precursors of memory-related activity modes in task-performing in vivo networks." Still, the work of the Baruchi and Ben-Jacob is the first to "store" information in a cultured neuron network for a larger time period (the first chemically operated neuro-memory chip).

The chemical signaling mechanisms seem to be essential for neuronal function in living organisms, having a "crucial role in memory and learning in task-performing [living] networks."

Further investigations could lead to a chemically operated neuro-memory chip towards the creation of a memory chip on living material.