Scientists, including one of Indian origin, have developed a brain-machine interface that allows monkeys navigate a robotic wheelchair using just their thoughts, an advance that may help people who ha
Scientists, including one of Indian origin, have developed a brain-machine interface that allows monkeys navigate a robotic wheelchair using just their thoughts, an advance that may help people who have lost muscle control and mobility in future.
The interface uses signals from hundreds of neurons recorded simultaneously in two regions of the monkeys’ brains that are involved in movement and sensation.
As the animals think about moving towards their goal — in this case, a bowl containing fresh grapes — computers translate their brain activity into real-time operation of the wheelchair.
The interface demonstrates the future potential for people with disabilities who have lost most muscle control and mobility due to quadriplegia or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), said senior author Miguel Nicolelis, co-director for the Duke University’s Centre for Neuroengineering in the US.
“In some severely disabled people, even blinking is not possible,” Mr Nicolelis said.
“For them, using a wheelchair or device controlled by noninvasive measures like an EEG (a device that monitors brain waves through electrodes on the scalp) may not be sufficient,” he said. We show clearly that if you have intracranial implants, you get better contr-ol of a wheelchair than with noninvasive devices,” Mr Nicolelis said.
Scientists, including Sankaranarayani Rajangam of Duke University, implanted hundreds of hair-thin microfilaments in the premotor and somatosensory regions of the brains of two rhesus macaques.
They trained the animals by passively navigating the chair toward their goal, the bowl containing grapes. During this training phase, the scientists recorded the primates’ large-scale electrical brain activity.
The researchers then programmed a computer system to translate brain signals into digital motor commands that controlled the movements of the wheelchair.
