Brain waves detected in lab grown mini-brains

WASHINGTON: Scientists have picked up electrical activity in pea-sized, lab-grown brains for the first time, paving the way to model neurological conditions and answer fundamental questions on how our gray matter develops. It’s not clear whether the mini-brains are conscious -- the team behind the breakthrough suspect they’re not but can’t say for sure -- opening up a new ethical dimension to this area of research moving forward. So-called "brain organoids" derived from adult stem cells have been around for a decade or so but have never previously developed functional neural networks.