BrainGate

Grabbing a soda from the refrigerator, turning up the volume to your favorite song or even checking your email messages are quite easy. Unfortunately, for those who are severely paralyzed these seemingly easy acts are impossible.

However, Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems is hoping to provide an opportunity for paralyzed people to participate a bit more in the world around them. BrainGate is a neural interface system that Cyberkinetics developed. Currently, the FDA has given the company the go ahead to conduct a pilot study under an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE). BrainGate works by taking thought and turning it into action.

In a small pool of study participants, BrainGate has allowed people with severe motor impairments the advantage to do things like check email, communicate through a computer and play video games. This is possible because BrainGate is hooked up to a PC and when the patient thinks of an action the apparatus translates that thought into something real. For example, the patients that were able to check email just had to think about moving the cursor on the computer monitor.

BrainGate is in the early stages of development and the movements of those with prosthetics devices connected to the neural interface are not the most graceful. But, for people that have been unable to move to suddenly have any mobility and control - BrainGate is a welcomed opportunity. One patient was able to perform movements like opening and closing a prosthetic hand just by thinking.

In simple terms, Cyberkinetics' technology works by channeling thought into action. But, the science behind BrainGate is far from simple. First, in order to set up BrainGate's neural interface, microelectrodes (sensors) are placed within the part of the brain that controls motor function. The sensor is placed through a hole drilled in that patient's skull and it contains 100 electrodes that are thinner than a human hair. Then a group of gold wires connect the implanted sensors to a pedestal that sticks out through the scalp. Finally, cables connect the pedestal to a computer. So, from the sensor to the computer apparatus there is a continuous connection between thought and action. A demo to help you visualize BrainGate's setup is available at Cyberkinetics' website.

John Donoghue, founder, chief scientific officer and director of Cyberkinetics realizes that BrainGate is still in its early stages; however, he expressed ambitions for future applications of the device. Donoghue expressed motivations toward helping paralyzed people restore mobility to their own limbs by attaching BrainGate to motorized exoskeleton-like devices on a paralyzed arm or leg. BrainGate's function would essentially be the same in that it would translate the person's thought into the intended movement of the actual limb by controlling the exoskeleton.

Donoghue's hope is that BrainGate's computer system can become more compact then it appears now. This will afford patients not only the opportunity to gain mobility but to do so without the bulkiness of the large apparatus as it is now. And in the world of ever-changing and progressive technology, BrainGate is an amazing step for paralyzed patients to reconnect with the world.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/144667/technology_biology_turn_thought_into_action.html