Future Now
The IFTF Blog
"Briains, implants, robot arms, oh my!"
Celeste Biever writes in NewScientist about a man who uses brain implants to extend his capabilities.
Electrodes implanted in Nagle's brain measure the neural signals generated when he concentrates on trying to move one of his paralysed limbs. Software trained to recognise different patterns of neural activity then translates imagined gestures into the movement of an on-screen cursor or a robotic arm at Nagle's side.
"The fundamental findings are that you can record activity from the brain years after injury, that thinking about movement is sufficient to activate the brain, and that we can decode the signal," says John Donoghue of Brown University in New York, who led the work.
"Even though only one person was studied, the findings are impressive, especially as you can use the system while talking," says Maria Stokes a neurologist at the University of Southampton, UK.
Is it safe?
Surgeons drilled a hole in Nagle's skull and inserted a pill-sized chip covered with 96 protruding electrodes into his motor cortex, an area at the centre of his brain that normally controls bodily movement. The operation carries the risk of infection and brain damage, an especially chilling prospect for someone already quadriplegic.
Where do we go from here?
If the same techniques work in people, Donoghue's ambitious approach may yet be perfected. Working with researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, US, he ultimately hopes to enable quadriplegics to control their own limbs via electrical stimulation of their muscles.
Nagle's implant can only sample a fraction of the relevant brain activity and for the moment the signal can be patchy. This causes the cursor or robotic arm Nagle is controlling to wobble, and can make even simple tasks like checking email frustrating.
Less invasive brain-computer interfaces exist, but offer less control. A group led by Benjamin Blankertz at the Fraunhofer Institute in Berlin, Germany, has developed a system that measures electrical activity via a skull cap lined with electrodes. While this lets users type at a speed of eight characters a minute, it cannot perform more complex tasks like manipulating a robotic arm.