Silicon plus neurones can move mountains with thought

Stan Beer
Sunday, 16 July 2006 15:19

Your IT - Home IT

A new silicon chip implanted in the brain of a 25 year old quadraplegic test subject has been shown to enable the paralyzed man to move computer mouse cursors and robotic arms by thought power.

The 25 year old test subject, who had previously been paralyzed from the neck down after a spinal cord injury, produced brain signals when trying to move his paralyzed limbs. The signals were picked up by a brain implanted sensor and translated into electronic impulses that allowed him to control a computer cursor and manipulate mechanical devices.

The system is called the BrainGate Neural Interface System, which was developed by a US company called Cybernetics Neurotechnology Systems, based in Massachusetts. The brain-computer interface system works by implanting a tiny sensor on the surface of the brain in the area that controls limb movement or other body processes.

The sensor picks up electrical impulses fired by brain cells as a result of thought, which are then transmitted through wires to a computer.

The sensor consists of a silicon array about the size of a small pill that contains one hundred electrodes, each thinner than a human hair. Trials of the BrainGate system, which have been reported in the science journal Nature, are currently underway at Massachusetts General Hospital, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and other research centers across the US.

The findings of the early clinical trials, which include both human and animal test subjects, provide hope that in the future the system might eventually be extended to enable patients with spinal cord injuries and with motor neurone disease to actually once again move their own limbs. In the shorter term, applications such as wheel chairs, prosthetic limbs and computers, all controlled by thought power are now in the realms of feasibility.

However, despite the principle of electronic thought control now being a proven science, there are still quite a few medical and technological hurdles to be overcome.

For a start, the technology still depends on a wired interface, with wires extending through a small hole in the skull. Infrared wireless transmission has been discussed, although one would think Blue Tooth enablement would seem a natural for this type of application.

Other problems still to be solved include the potentially dangerous and invasive nature of the required sensor implantation brain surgery and the currently limited life-span of the sensor device, which so far has not lasted longer than 12 months in human tests.

Another more sinister objection to the new technology has been raised. The science fiction scenario  of  thought control moving the other way has been raised by ethicists. Actual experiments have been carried out with laboratory rats with implants that have been successfully controlled like robots. {moscomments}