Findings to Aid Use of Prosthetic or Paralyzed Limbs

A finding that owl monkeys can use brain signals, detected by implanted electrodes, to control a robot arm to reach for food could form the basis for a brain-machine interface that would allow patients to control the movement of prosthetic or paralyzed limbs. The finding was made by researchers at Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC, USA).

The researchers implanted the electrodes in multiple regions of the brain's cortex, including the motor cortex, from which movement is controlled. They then recorded the output of these electrodes as the animals learned reaching tasks, including reaching for small pieces of food. The mass of neural signal data generated were fed into a computer, which analyzed the brain signals to predict the trajectory of the monkey's hand from the signals. The researchers then used the brain signals from the monkeys, as processed by the computer, to allow the animals to control a robot arm moving in three directions. They were even able to transmit the brain signals over a standard Internet connection, controlling a similar arm in the Laboratory for Human and Machine Haptics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston, USA).

"The reliability of this system and the long-term viability of the electrodes lead us to believe that this paradigm could eventually be used to help paralyzed people restore some motor function,” said Miguel Nicolelis, associate professor of neurobiology at Duke.


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