Monkey mind-controlled arm: It feels like the name of an awesomely terrible sci-fi film or a fledgling grindcore group, but it is a very real phenomenon, and one who could pay significant dividends for paraplegics everywhere. Neurobiology professor Miguel Nicolelis and his team of researchers at Duke University recently devised a strategy wherein monkeys (and, perhaps sooner or later, humans) can control a virtual arm using only their brains. It is a concept identical to what DARPA was pursuing with its mind-controlled “Luke” arm , with one important difference: Nicolelis’ system not just allows users to remotely execute motor functions, but provides them with near-instantaneous sensory feedback, to boot. Most similar techniques use electrode implants to stimulate brain activity, but this may create confusion when a patient’s brain sends and receives signals to and from a prosthetic arm. Nicolelis circumvented this problem with a brand new interface that could read and transmit brain signals to a synthetic limb, before switching to a receptive mode in only milliseconds.
After designing the technology, Nicolelis and his colleagues tested it on two, electrode-equipped rhesus monkeys. One set of electrodes was placed within the motor cortex of every animal, with the opposite implanted within their brains’ sensory regions. They then trained the monkeys to observe a 3 identical objects on a pc screen and to “touch” each object with a virtual arm, controlled by signals sent from the brain electrodes. Only 1 of the 3 objects had a so-called “virtual texture,” which, if selected with the on-screen arm, would send a sensory signal back to the monkey’s brain (while triggering a delectable squirt of fruit juice for the lucky contestant). The 2 rhesus species ended up passing the test with flying colors, leading to a “proof of principle” that Nicolelis’ system can send tactile signals to the brain in almost real-time. The scientists have already developed a method for monkeys to manage the arm wirelessly, and at the moment are embedding their technology within a whole-body, mind-controlled exoskeleton for paralyzed patients, in addition. In fact, the technology still must be tested on actual humans, though Nicolelis seems confident that he and his team have already cleared the foremost difficult hurdle: “Since we won’t consult with the monkeys, i guess with human patients, it is going to be much easier.”
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