Thought-control research brings mental channel changing ever closer

Pinky and the Brain don’t get nearly the respect they deserve, but then again, neither do the lab coat-wearing boffins who make great strides behind sterilized doors to bring us one step closer to mass laziness. The latest development in the everlasting brain control saga takes us to the University of Washington, where a team of researchers are carefully studying the differences between doing an action and simply imagining the action. So far, they’ve discovered that interacting with brain-computer interfaces enables patients to create “super-active populations of brain cells.” Naturally, this finding holds promise for rehabilitating patients after stroke or other neurological damage, but it also suggests that “a human brain could quickly become adept at manipulating an external device such as a computer interface or a prosthetic limb.” Or a remote control, or a Segway, or a railgun. We can’t speak for you, but we certainly dig where this is headed. Video of the findings is after the break.

Continue reading Thought-control research brings mental channel changing ever closer

Thought-control research brings mental channel changing ever closer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink ExtremeTech  |  University of Washington  | Email this | Comments

This post is tagged: action, BCI, boffins, brain, brain cells, brain control, brain control interface, Brain-controlled cursor, Brain-controlledCursor, BrainControlInterface, channel, computer, computer interface, computer interfaces, control, damage, development, device, doors, extremetech, great strides, health, human brain, interface, lab, limb, Mass., medical, mind, nbsp, neural, neurological damage, Pinky, pinky and the brain, populations, promise, prosthetic limb, railgun, remote control, research, respect, saga, Science, Segway, step, stroke, team, university, university of washington, UniversityOfWashington, washington