Had to revive this thread because I just read the coolest artical in Pop Sci.
In a laboratory at Duke University, research into this type of technology is being conducted. It has been discovered by these researchers that this is much simpler to achieve then we have been making it. In the past it was thought that, in order to decode a signal from the brain, one would have to single out the individual neurons involved in that message. Separating those few neurons out of the billions present was a daunting task, to say the least. Keeping track of and decoding the millions of coordinated firings looked even more impossible. But it has now been discovered that such complicated computations are not necessary at all.
The secret is in understanding what researchers refer to as the "orchestral nature" of the cerebral neurons. For example, suppose an entire orchestra strikes the opening cords to Beethoven's fifth Symphony. If you found yourself in a situation that limited your hearing to just the first chair trombone and the timpani, it is likely that you would still be able to identify which piece of music was being played. It turns out the neurons in the human brain function in very much the same way. By monitoring a few key neurons, it is possible to know what large complex information is being sent as a command to the body.
Experimentation began with a rat. The rat was trained to press a lever for a food reward. Electrodes were then attached to neurons in the rat's brain to monitor electrical activity. Through the background noise of ordinary neural functioning, a certain pattern would repeat itself every time the rat moved its paw to push the lever. Once the pattern had been recognized to a high degree of confidence, the reward dispenser was attached directly to the electrodes and the lever was disconnected from the system. The system function properly, and whenever the rat pushed the lever, the machine dispensed a reward.
The amazing part is, after a short amount of time, the rat discovered the new nature of the connection. In time, the rat gave up on the bother of actually physically moving its from paw to push the lever! He learned that he could simply "think about it", and the machine would dispensed a reward.
The research team chiefly responsible for this breakthrough is headed up by a man named Miguel Nicolelis. They now have a macaque (monkey) in their lab sitting at a chair staring at a computer screen. A dot moves around the computer screen and when it holds still, a circle moves across the screen to encompass the dot. The sides of the circle then begin to thicken until they come into contact with the dot. The computer is generating the dot. The monkey is moving the circle with its brain. Wires run from the monkey's scull across the floor and into the next room, where the monkey's neuronal impulses are operating a robotic arm.
Researchers can place an object within reach of the arm, and the computer will generate a dot to represent that object on the monkey's monitor. The monkey thinks about reaching for the dot, but his arm does not move (as a matter of fact, he is strapped to the chair). But in the next room, the robotic arm moves over to the test object, and the hand closes until gripping the object.
from the article:
Nicolelis in his team are confident that within five years they will be able to build a robot arm that can be controlled by a person with electrodes implanted in his or her brain.
