Posted on 03/31/2005 7:09:14 PM PST by mastercylinder
A paralysed man in the US has become the first person to benefit from a brain chip that reads his mind.
Matthew Nagle, 25, was left paralysed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair after a knife attack in 2001.
The pioneering surgery at New England Sinai Hospital, Massachusetts, last summer means he can now control everyday objects by thought alone.
The brain chip reads his mind and sends the thoughts to a computer to decipher.
Mind over matter
He can think his TV on and off, change channels and alter the volume thanks to the technology and software linked to devices in his home.
Scientists have been working for some time to devise a way to enable paralysed people to control devices with the brain.
Studies have shown that monkeys can control a computer with electrodes implanted into their brain.
It's quite remarkable Dr Richard Apps, neurophysiologist from Bristol University
Recently four people, two of them partly paralysed wheelchair users, were able to move a computer cursor while wearing a cap with 64 electrodes that pick up brain waves.
Mr Nagle's device, called BrainGate, consists of nearly 100 hair-thin electrodes implanted a millimetre deep into part of the motor cortex of his brain that controls movement.
Wires feed the information from the electrodes into a computer which analyses the brain signals.
The signals are interpreted and translated into cursor movements, offering the user an alternative way to control devices such as a computer with thought.
Motor control
Professor John Donoghue, an expert on neuroscience at Brown University, Rhode Island, is the scientist behind the device produced by Cyberkinetics.
He said: "The computer screen is basically a TV remote control panel, and in order to indicate a selection he merely has to pass the cursor over an icon, and that's equivalent to a click when he goes over that icon."
Mr Nagle has also been able to use thought to move a prosthetic hand and robotic arm to grab sweets from one person's hand and place them into another.
Professor Donoghue hopes that ultimately implants such as this will allow people with paralysis to regain the use of their limbs.
The long term aim is to design a package the size of a mobile phone that will run on batteries, and to electrically stimulate the patient's own muscles.
This will be difficult.
The simple movements we take for granted in fact involve complex electrical signals which will be hard to replicate, Dr Richard Apps, a neurophysiologist from Bristol University, the UK, told the BBC News website.
He said there were millions of neurones in the brain involved with movement. The brain chip taps into only a very small number of these.
But he said the work was extremely exciting.
"It's quite remarkable. They have taken research to the next stage to have a clear benefit for a patient that otherwise would not be able to move.
"It seems that they have cracked the crucial step and arguably the most challenging step to get hand movements.
"Just to be able to grasp an object is a major step forward."
He said it might be possible to hone this further to achieve finer movements of the hand.
The 'chip' reads brain signals
I put it in breaking news because i thought it could have been a good thing to throw at the Terri Schiavo Case
Wow, this is awesome!
Makes me wonder if Terri had lived another 15 years, maybe some scientist could have helped her recover.
Now, we'll never know.
...and the scumbag Michael could not allow this to be used for Terri? She would have been able to communicate what he did to her!
Safer to kill her and burn like a ....
Another Commie plot to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids!
So what happens if he wants the tv on, but thinks about turning it off in a few minutes.
The military was testing some trainers that followed a pilot's eye movement, but it was very hard to tell when a pilot was looking around vs. which direction he wanted the plane to go.
Good stuff - technology is amazing.
I may post a thread later that says I fed my cat tonight. Someone will ask me if my cat is named Terri.
Amazing.
Hopefully, this technology won't be misused.
I'm thinking Christopher Walken , Natalie Wood in "Brainstorm"
My wife can smell beer over the telephone...
LOL
But no, this is
I remember years ago with mad scientists working on storing memory from the brain on devices and allowing it to be "downloaded". I also remember news allowing data transfer from electric pulse of body at 2MBPS. Are we going to have computers and artificial Operating Systems in our brains some day? Don't say it's MS Windows with full of glitches. I don't want to stall and reboot in front of the public, nor get hijacked by computer virus.
The scumbag Michael won't even allow the Schindlers to be at the burial.
So.....is your cat named Terri? =P
Was waiting for this item to come up. The chip is responding to thought! Isn't it? How can an inanimate object do that? For that matter, how can a living cell do that? Bruce Lipton had promise, but I must rate his effort as puny. Still, there are some interesting observations in his book, but not much we don't already know. He points out that placebo [sugar pills] often work as well as the patent medicine. Maybe sugar is the secret.
Who knows!?
Excellent Psyop piece, yet also true !
What's all this about Gabbo?
That could be why he needs her cremated. Stuff like this could mean trouble.
Didnt someone do this about 20 years ago with a remote control car?
Oh, I wasn't thinking of anything in particular honey, why did you ask?
Your girlfriend drinks beer?
Remember that gem of a movie--Cherry2000?
I may post a thread later that says I fed my cat tonight. Someone will ask me if my cat is named Terri.
LOL!
I was thinking about this today and I think I figured it all out. There are many people here who have been following Terri for years. Those Shiavo threads have been around for what seems like forever. And all those people are heavily invested emotionally in her, much more so than for those of us who just started paying attention to it in the last 2 weeks. In other words, they're grieving. And don't laugh -- it's real. It's going to take a while for them to work through all the accompanying emotions, that's all.
I really wish everyone could stop expecting so much from the other side. And I mean both sides.
One side needs to stop expecting everyone else at FR to be grieving and boo-hooing like they are, and the other side needs to let the 1st side grieve without laughing at them in public and saying they're maniacal nutcases.
Dang, I should charge for this.
If we can bring back the dead, maybe we can also wake up some students soundly sleeping and drooling in an EXTREMELY boring prof's class?
>>>>>Next logical step will be getting his iPod earphones permanently pierced into his ear canals!
(from the glasses thread)
See, BRAIN CHIPS :)
First glasses...
Now Brain piercing.
I laughed out loud !
What a hoot, keep up the funny business.
"Your eye turn solid blue" --
LOL! Freakin' riot!
Go through life not thinking of the suffering of others. Your curt comment is shallow, disrespectful of the deceased, and dishonors those that value life.
I know you not, but please put thought into your writings before you post.
Flame if you wish.
Oh, I could not care less what the name of your cat is. The name that's important is of a gentle lady. Her name is Terri Shiavo, may she rest eternally in peace.
I remember seeing a similar system that read eye movements were the person looks at a letter or icon on a computer screen and "points and clicks" to get what he/she wants by blinking their eyes. I think it was back in 1977/78/79 and it was said that it would be useful for the handicapped. Of course, we can develop a more sophisticated system now, the the idea was around even then.
Works for me, I'm a college student :)
Corr: "eyes" not "eye" sorry for the misquote.
So much for the English distinction between singular and plural ...
Reading tooooooo much info on the ChiComs lately, it very hurtly my eye so much, ha!
Remember the teacher in the old Charlie Brown cartoons? Unreal.
Teacher (muffled): "whah wha wah wah wh blah blah wah wah wah"
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ............
Amazing.
Hopefully, this technology won't be misused.
Fee: That's what I'm hoping won't happen. But with this technology, it's easy for someone to want to try or attempt it.
Imagine a tax on your mind?
Wow.
The possibilities are endless.
Soon we'll all have computers and wireless Internet recievers implanted in our heads. The possibilities are endless. We'll even be able to post on FR while taking a shower!
"Those Shiavo threads have been around for what seems like forever. And all those people are heavily invested emotionally in her, much more so than for those of us who just started paying attention to it in the last 2 weeks."
Wow, you just started paying attention 2 weeks ago? I guess us Freepers that have paid attention to it for years(did you avoid the threads for years?) must be wack-jobs that are overzealous about the idea "right to life"
Here's a suggestion: if you avoided the issue for years, why don't you hold on to that trend and just leave us "heavily invested emotionally in her" Freepers alone? You won't have to insult us with your presumed indifference and hence don't have to wait until we can "stop expecting everyone else at FR to be grieving and boo-hooing like (we) are"
You are now officially, in regards to this issue and by your own declaration, the "other side". You should shudder when you realize the ideoligical company you share.
Oh, I gotta remember that one! :) LOL!
Resistance is futile.
No.....
=P
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