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Updated: Nov 18, 2025

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Published on: July 12, 2021
Toward Studying Cognition in a Dish
Nicolas Rouleau1, Nirosha J Murugan2, David L Kaplan3
1Department of Psychology, Algoma University, 1520 Queen Street East, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, P6A 2G4; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, Science and Technology Center, 4 Colby Street, Medford, MA 02155, USA.
Abstract:
Bioengineered neural tissues help advance our understanding of neurodevelopment, regeneration, and neural disease; however, it remains unclear whether they can replicate higher-order functions including cognition. Building upon technical achievements in the fields of biomaterials, tissue engineering, and cell biology, investigators have generated an assortment of artificial brain structures and cocultured circuits. Though they have displayed basic electrochemical signaling, their capacities to generate minimal patterns of information processing suggestive of high-order cognitive analogues have not yet been explored. Here, we review the current state of neural tissue engineering and consider the possibility of a study of cognition in vitro. We adopt a practical definition of minimal cognition, anticipate problems of measurement, and discuss solutions toward a study of cognition in a dish.
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