BBC: Brain Could Power Artifical Limbs

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Brain Could Power Artifical Limbs
Mind power could be used to control artifical limbs, scientists believe.

Monday, 5 April, 2004, 17:29 GMT 18:29 UK

Tests on humans show a link between a pattern of brain signals and certain limb 
movements, a team at Duke University,
North Carolina found.

Previous research has shown monkeys can move a cursor on a computer screen 
using thought-waves alone.

However, implants of microchips into the brain of paralysed patients would be 
necessary to allow them to control a
robot arm or computer.

Professor Miguel Nicolelis at Duke University led the latest research, which he 
said could lead to treatment for people
with paralysis.

Patients would be able to control the movement of a robot arm or leg by 
thinking about it.

The electrical signals produced by the brain would be picked up by the chip and 
sent to the robotic arm.

Tests were carried out on Parkinson's Disease patients who played a computer 
game as they underwent a brain operation
under local anaesthetic.

Tiny electrodes recorded signals coming from the brain as the patients used a 
joystick to play the game.

Movements

The results showed the pattern of brain signals that correspond to certain 
movements of a limb can be mapped.

This makes it possible to produce a chip which knows what the signals sent by 
the brain mean.

Professor Nicolelis said: "It is very encouraging because it replicated some of 
the results we saw in monkeys.

"It could allow severely paralysed patients to regain mobility."

He hoped the technique could be in place in two to five years.

Professor Stephen Jackson at the Institute of Neuroscience in Nottingham, said 
similar research had been done in the
UK.

He said he "did not think it would be very long" before it would be possible to 
drive an artificial limb by signals
from the brain.

Professor Roger Lemon, director of the Insititute of Neurology at University 
College London, stressed it was not the
thought that controlled muscle movement but the neural signals sent by the 
brain.

Though the idea has been around for 40 years it was only recently that it had 
been possible to put implants into the
brain safely, said Professor Lemon.

Story from BBC NEWS:


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