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Monkeys Play Videogames With Their Mind

Posted by simoniker on from the I-for-one-welcome-our-etc dept.

Thanks to IOL/Reuters for their story discussing research on monkeys who control videogames with their thoughts. According to the piece, "Dr Miguel Nicolelis knew he had nailed it when the monkey stopped using her arm to play the computer game. An implanted device had allowed the monkey to control the game using only her thought." The research, to be printed in Public Library Of Science Biology Journal on Monday, is intended to help humans who "have partial or nearly total permanent paralysis."

3 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. Humans can do this too by keesh · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Kevin Warwick has been doing this for ages.

  2. Category, etc. by Noah+Adler · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why is this not posted under Science? Just because it uses games as part of the research doesn't mean its all just for entertainment.

    Plenty of other brain-computer interface links have been posted under the proper category: Mind-Controlled Wheelchair, Controlling Robots with the Mind,Linking Hardware to Wetware, etc. This article is a continuation of this field's story.

    Personally, I think this is one of the coolest areas of research around right now. The ability to, in the near future, help paralyzed people regain mobility and function would indeed be an incredible accomplishment, but that's just the start. This kind of research could help improve humans themselves. Imagine adding new cybernetic body parts, or even new senses (ability to 'see' infrared for example). There are a lot of potential possibilities. Forget the ad-hoc wireless computer networks, this tech could possibly enable something like an ad-hoc human brain network (telepathy anyone?) Seems very very cool and useful.

    If this rate of progress keeps up (which seems likely), perhaps Slashdot will need to create a Brain-Computer Interface category.

  3. PLoS is now online. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I stayed up for the Public Library of Science to go online. (Yay!)

    ObBeKindServers: The actual article is 16 pages of neurobiology captured in a 3.3MB PDF file. Unless this is your field, you may find 13 of the 16 pages a difficult read.

    A 28KB synopsis PDF file is much more accessable to those outside the field: Retraining the Brain to Recover Movement . Check it out first.