Neural Interface System
Scientists have been working for some time to devise a way to enable paralyzed people to control devices with the brain. Studies have shown that monkeys can control a computer with electrodes implanted into their brain. According to a recent news, a professor (and scientist) by the name of John Donahue at the Brown University, Rhode Island, has devised a chip that is capable of reading a human being’s thoughts. It is expected that people using this system, called the BrainGate system, will employ a personal computer as the gateway to a range of self-directed activities. This BrainGate System is based on Cyberkinetics' platform technology to sense, transmit, analyze and apply the language of neurons. The BrainGate Neural Interface System is currently the subject of a pilot clinical trial being conducted under an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) from the FDA.
Matthew Nagle, who was paralyzed neck down in 2001 due a knife attack underwent a pioneering surgery of implanting that chip into his brain and now he is able to control everyday objects just by a mere thought of them. The chip is called the BrainGate (whole system is called the BrainGate system as I mentioned in the above paragraph) and it consists of nearly 100 hair-thin electrodes implanted a millimeter deep into part of the motor cortex of his brain that controls movement. The principle of operation behind the BrainGate System is that with intact brain function, brain signals are generated even though they are not sent to the arms, hands and legs. The signals are interpreted and translated into cursor movements, offering the user an alternate "BrainGate pathway" to control a computer with thought, just as individuals who have the ability to move their hands use a mouse. The computer acts like a TV remote’s control panel and in order to do something the person has to just pass the cursor over the icon which would be equivalent of clicking it. For example, if Matthew wanted to turn on the lights, he has to just think about moving the cursor on the screen to the icon for lights and once he hovers over the icon for lights, the lights are turned on. This was a trivial example but the real help is moving his wheel chair for example, is something that Matthew can now do by just thinking about it. I have a link to the video where you can see Matthew using this amazing device. He 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. During recent experiments four more people, two of them partly paralyzed wheelchair users, were able to move a computer cursor while wearing a cap with 64 electrodes that pick up brain waves.
The long term aim of professor Donahue is to design a package of a size of a mobile phone that will run on batteries, and to electrically stimulate the patient's own muscles (but as we all can imagine, it is extremely difficult to do something like that) and he hopes that ultimately implants such as this will allow people with paralysis to regain the use of their limbs.
This BrainGate system is important to us since we are learning about the brain, its functions, different pathways via which the body’s movement is controlled, and the brain waves that were recently discussed. It is cool and really innovative and can be something that biomedical engineers could be interested in to learn more about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDiWFcA0gaw
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4396387.stm
Mithil Chokshi
VTPP 501
Matthew Nagle, who was paralyzed neck down in 2001 due a knife attack underwent a pioneering surgery of implanting that chip into his brain and now he is able to control everyday objects just by a mere thought of them. The chip is called the BrainGate (whole system is called the BrainGate system as I mentioned in the above paragraph) and it consists of nearly 100 hair-thin electrodes implanted a millimeter deep into part of the motor cortex of his brain that controls movement. The principle of operation behind the BrainGate System is that with intact brain function, brain signals are generated even though they are not sent to the arms, hands and legs. The signals are interpreted and translated into cursor movements, offering the user an alternate "BrainGate pathway" to control a computer with thought, just as individuals who have the ability to move their hands use a mouse. The computer acts like a TV remote’s control panel and in order to do something the person has to just pass the cursor over the icon which would be equivalent of clicking it. For example, if Matthew wanted to turn on the lights, he has to just think about moving the cursor on the screen to the icon for lights and once he hovers over the icon for lights, the lights are turned on. This was a trivial example but the real help is moving his wheel chair for example, is something that Matthew can now do by just thinking about it. I have a link to the video where you can see Matthew using this amazing device. He 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. During recent experiments four more people, two of them partly paralyzed wheelchair users, were able to move a computer cursor while wearing a cap with 64 electrodes that pick up brain waves.
The long term aim of professor Donahue is to design a package of a size of a mobile phone that will run on batteries, and to electrically stimulate the patient's own muscles (but as we all can imagine, it is extremely difficult to do something like that) and he hopes that ultimately implants such as this will allow people with paralysis to regain the use of their limbs.
This BrainGate system is important to us since we are learning about the brain, its functions, different pathways via which the body’s movement is controlled, and the brain waves that were recently discussed. It is cool and really innovative and can be something that biomedical engineers could be interested in to learn more about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDiWFcA0gaw
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4396387.stm
Mithil Chokshi
VTPP 501
posted by Mit at 4:39 PM
1 Comments:
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