Researchers have grown brain cells in a laboratory.
Scientists have grown brain cells in a lab
Cortical Labs have claimed to have created the first "sentient" lab-grown brain in a dish and have taught it to play the 1970s video game Pong.
Expert Dr. Brett Kagan says that the "mini-brain" is able to sense and respond to its environment.
He explained: "We could find no better term to describe the device. It is able to take in information from an external source, process it and then respond to it in real time."
Dr. Kagan hopes that the technology could eventually be used to test treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.
He said: "When people look at tissues in a dish, at the moment they are seeing if there is activity or no activity. But the purpose of brain cells is to process information in real time.
"Tapping into their true function unlocks so many more research areas that can be explored in a comprehensive way."
Other experts have described the work as "exciting" but claim that the organ cannot be described as sentient yet.