Monkeys Play Videogames With Their Mind

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."

Comments

Humans can do this too

[keesh]

Kevin Warwick has been doing this for ages.

Re:Humans can do this too

[blincoln]

Kevin Warwick is really overrated by the media (and himself, IMO). The last time I checked, the extent of his "cybernetic implant" was a chip that did something like emit radio waves so that doors in his house would open automatically for him.

The real pioneers of this technology are the ones who go to Europe to have electrodes implanted in their brain to participate in artificial vision research that's currently illegal in the US. I am not a fan of animal experimentation, and a human that can verbally describe what they're seeing seems like a more useful way to gather data than trying to infer it from a monkey's behaviour.

In the case of this article, it seems like being able to tell someone "now try moving the robotic arm without moving your real one" is a lot more straightforward than waiting for a monkey to figure it out on their own.

I'm sure there are many people with disabilities (and even some without them) who would be interested in participating in research like this. I know I would, if I became blind or lost the use of a limb. I'm glad that the article mentions that human trials are now beginning.

Re:Humans can do this too

[Ieshan]

I know you're not a big fan of animal research, but I figured I'd try to enlighten you a bit.

Many of the research conditions required by advanced neuropsychology require very direct control over the type of injury that a patient has. Because we're only "starting" to know a great deal about areas of the brain (both human, simian, and avian), we must control very carefully the types of injuries that our test subjects have.

Studies such as these cost tens of thousands of dollars to perform - not because the technology is costly (which it is) - but because test subjects are required with such precision. Think about how hard it would be to get test subjects with one particular condition flown in from all around the globe, and that's only after you've gone out to interview them or have spent the money to find out about them. Then, you've got to make sure they've got exactly the type of injury that will help progress your research - a blunder could ruin the experiment.

There are lots of different things that control "now try moving the robotic arm without moving your real one". Thousands of pathways that could be injured in the intermediary. When scientists conduct animal tests, they are doing it for the benefit of the humans they help to aid - and often, it involves very specific lesions that must be carefully examined post-mortem: such a sacrifice we cannot expect humans to provide.

Trust me when I say this: no one likes harming aminals, even for test purposes. There's no joy when we realize that some of the pigeons I work with might have to die some day, to be able to validate the research we conduct. It's not pretty to note these things, but it's neccessary to continue furthering our understanding of the brain and of vision.

Any questions specifically about avian visual psychology (that's what I research), will be gladly accepted. :)

PS: Very, very few of our test subjects are ever harmed, and yes, they've all got names instead of numbers. ;)

I for one

[Anonymous Coward]

...welcome our new cybernetic monkey overlords!

Gah! More tech for "paralyzed people"

[QuantumG]

I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to get in a car crash or fall off a horse before I can get some electrodes inserted in my head. I'm a programmer, I work with computers every day.. I think I qualify for a brain-computer interface better than someone who just happened to have the misfortune to lose control of their upper body! But no, every time some new piece of research discovers a brain-computer interface the first bunch of people they go running after are the paralyzed.

"However, the results so far lead us to believe that these brain-machine interfaces hold enormous promise for restoring function to paralyzed people."

Just once I'd like to hear "results so far lead us to believe that these brain-machine interfaces hold enormous promise for increased programmer productivity."

Category, etc.

[Noah Adler]

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.

They've got nothing on my girlfriend

[El]

She's been playing mind-games for years!