Cool tech

Kevin Robert Dean qualiall_2 at yahoo.com
Thu Mar 14 07:50:39 PST 2002


Monkeys Use Their Brains To Control Computer Cursor

http://www.nydailynews.com/2002-03-14/News_and_Views/Beyond_the_City/a-144317.asp

PHILADELPHIA

In an experiment aimed at helping people with severe paralysis, scientists have given three monkeys the ability to move an object simply by thinking.

With special electrodes implanted in their brains, the rhesus monkeys were able to slide an icon around a computer screen just by willing it to move.

The implants picked up neural firings in the monkeys' brains and sent them directly to a computer, which analyzed them and translated them into cursor movement.

That allowed the monkeys to play a kind of video game, moving the cursor mentally to strike targets on the screen.

Researchers at Brown University say their work could help people immobilized by extreme forms of paralysis.

A more primitive version of the technology has been used on a 53-year-old man in Atlanta who suffers from profound paralysis.

Knight-Ridder Newspapers

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