www.nytimes.com/2004/04/13/health/13BRAI.html
The Food and Drug Administration has given approval for a clinical trial of the implants, according to the company. The implants, part of what Cyberkinetics calls its BrainGate system, could eventually help people with spinal cord injuries, strokes, Lou Gehrigs disease or other ailments to communicate better or even to operate lights and other devices through a kind of neural remote control. You can substitute brain control for hand control, basically, said Dr. Donoghue, chairman of the neuroscience department at Brown University and a founder of Cyberkinetics, which hopes to begin the trial as early as next month. The melding of man and machine has long been a staple of science fiction. Indeed, the participants in Cyberkineticss clinical trial, who have not yet been chosen, will have a cable sticking out of their heads to connect them to computers, making them look something like characters in The Matrix. But in real life, several research groups have already implanted devices in monkeys that allow them to control cursors on computer screens or move robot arms using their brainpower alone, setting the stage for the trial in people. Among many people in the field, theres a feeling now that the time is here for moving the technology to test in humans, said Dr. Andersen, professor of neuroscience at the California Institute of Technology, who is working on his own device for the brain. Still, for the trial, there is trepidation mixed with anticipation. A disaster at this early stage could set the whole field back, said Dr. Taylor, a research associate at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, who is testing similar systems in monkeys. Devices have long been implanted in the brains of patients with Parkinsons disease to deliver pulses of electricity that reduce tremors and rigidity. Instead, they listen to the electrical signals produced by the brains neurons as they work. The aim is to discern a pattern of neuronal activity indicating the intention to initiate a particular physical movement. In typical monkey trials of neural implants, the animals, which are not paralyzed, are trained to perform a task, like moving a cursor with a joystick, while a tiny subset of their neurons is monitored. After different patterns of neuronal signals are matched with different body movements, cursor control is shifted to their brains. In some studies, the monkeys eventually appeared to realize that they no longer had to move their arms to perform the tasks. But in addition to passively letting its thoughts be read, the brain also learns to control the cursor actively, just as it acquires any new skill. The quadriplegics in the trial will not be able to move their arms to train the system, making things a little harder.
|
http://csua.com/feed/