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Monkey's
Brain Waves Control Robot's Arm
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Two
monkeys with a set of electrodes implanted in their
parietal and frontal regions of their brain were able
to control a robot's arm movements simply with signals
from their brain and visual feedback on a video screen.
The research at Duke University Medical Center was led
by Prof Nicolelis and provides hope for paralyzed pets
and humans as a way to control to use "neuroprosthetic"
limbs, and even free-roaming "neurorobots"
with brain signals.
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The
paper published online Oct. 13, 2003, in the Public Library
of Science (PLoS), by neurobiologists led by Miguel Nicolelis,
professor of neurobiology and co-director of the Duke Center
for Neuroengineering. Other key investigators were Jose Carmena
and Craig Henriquez, associate professor of biomedical engineering
in the Pratt School of Engineering, and the other co-director
at the Centre.
An
array of microelectrodes 96 in one monkey and 320 in the other
-- each smaller than the diameter of a human hair -- was implanted
into the frontal and parietal lobes of the brains of two female
rhesus macaque monkeys.
An
interesting observation is that the monkey begins to start
using the robot arm preferentially with signals from her brain
while letting their own arm rest passively on the side. This
indicates that the brain had begun to act as if the robot
arm was a real arm.
For
those who wish to contact Professor Miguel Nicolelis. They
can write to him at nicoleli@neuro.duke.edu. or call him up
on can be reached at (919) 684-4580.
relevant
links : http://dukemednews.org/news/article.php?id=69
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