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Researchers have grown brain cells in a lab that have learned to play the 1970s video game Pong. The scientists, from Cortical Labs in Melbourne, Australia claim the "mini-brain" they have created can sense and respond to its environment. The DishBrain. As it is called, can be plugged into and interact with an external environment - a capability they tested by teaching it to play Pong. The research team grew human brain cells grown from stem cells and mouse embryos to a collection of 800,000. They connected this mini-brain to the video game via electrodes telling the cells which side the ball was on and how far it was from the paddle and even found that the human-based cells were better than the mice-based ones. The mini-brain learned to play in five minutes and it improved with time. Dr Brett Kagan, who led the research team’s next move looks like a nod to the popular student game ‘Beer Pong’ as he plans to test the cells ability to play the game while under the influence of alcohol. The move has a serious purpose, however, as if it is similarly impaired to a normal human brain it will show its effectiveness as a stand-in for a real brain when running experiments to test treatments for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.