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Neural Implant To Give Control of Paralyzed Arms
An anonymous reader writes "A neural implant that connects to muscle-stimulating electrodes has given monkeys the ability to grasp a ball and drop it into a hole even though the monkey's arm has been anesthetized. The approach is another step towards 'rewiring' the brains and limbs of paralyzed patients. The research, presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference in Chicago this week, uses a technique called functional electrical stimulation (FES), in which implanted electrodes deliver electrical current to trigger muscle contractions, providing a way to reconnect this loop."
With the large number of individuals in the world with amputated limbs, this is nice to see. If only more time and research went into things like this instead of bureaucratic endeavors. Can we change our government to "Scientific Method for the People, By the People"?
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
...not useful for PALS (Person(s) with ALS) where there is no longer a neuromuscular junction (NMJ).
Not a complaint; just an observation before someone gets excited for Professor Hawking.
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
Now I won't be able to blame Carpal Tunnel anymore. Thanks Science ...thanks a lot!
L'esperienza de questa dolce vita (The experience of this sweet life) - Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
Rawhide: Dr. Banzai is using a laser to vaporize a pineal tumor without damaging the parthogenital plate. A subcutaneous microphone will allow the patient to transmit verbal instructions to his own brain. Observer: Like, "raise my left arm"? Rawhide: Or "throw the harpoon." People are gonna come from all over. This boy's an Eskimo.
Before you give it a good spanking.
I'd have thought that would be counterproductive ...
If the geiger counter does not click, the coffee, she is not thick.
I am against neural implants. They just don't feel as good as natural nerves.
Dance, puppet, dance!
Whether ignoring it or ignorant of it, the present research is not "another step towards 'rewiring' the brains and limbs of paralyzed patients", it's a step back from that very use.
Christopher Reeve credited FES with helping to regain what function and sensation he did.
Thew earliest use I know of was the case presented on 60 Minutes where a paralyzed woman had EMG signals produced by a bicycle-like device that would have been called FES had it had a name that long ago. These were recorded and later played back amplified into her muscles to artificially produce walking. She told Dan Rather than she would walk again within a year, and would walk down the aisle to get married. He reported on CBS Evening News only a month later that she had done exactly that. This was probably around 30 years ago because the stimulation/recording/playback was controlled by a shiny new Apple II computer.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
... for a science fair project in seventh grade. My plan was to amputate a frog's legs, then replace them with electromechanical legs that had electrodes hooked up to its nerves.
I am glad I never carried about my dastardly plan. When I think of it now my mind reels with the thought of the suffering that poor creature would have endured.
But I did learn a great deal about frog anatomy as well as the histories of biology and medicine. My mother encouraged this project as her father was a surgeon.
Its the programmers fault. Why wouldnt a perfect being take into account redundant systems. Dont worry, we can fix "his" mistakes. Software based and all...
has given monkeys the ability ...
If you have a paralyzed limb and are on a budget, train the monkeys to fetch things for you instead. Problem solved, and you even got bonus company!
Just in time for http://i.imgur.com/cKc4n.gif
That guys never going to get his double-leg amputee now.
Kudos to the monkey. If I found myself in a tiny box and without feeling in my arm, the last thing on my mind would be earning rewards.
Achievement points, maybe.
http://www.stopmonkeybusiness.org/
I think therefore I can't be ~TTNH
I'm sorry to douse the enthusiasm, but there have been attempts to tap nerves for motor control for decades. Like tapping a telephone by hammering a crowbar into a bundle of telephone lines, the ability to detect and use the signals for controlling a specific limb's movement in any detail has turned out to be very difficult. Your electrodes are basically stuck in a medium of salt water, collecting signals from every nerve nearby, and the signal is typically very noisy indeed. (I used to design stimulation electronics for such electrodes.)
Gross motor control was possible with old myo-electric skin electrode techniques for many years, safely. But the amount of confusing electrical signal is so large that you basically have to sample the signal for at least half a second to verify that the signal is real. Half a second delay is tremendous in fine motor control: I'll be very surprised indeed if this technique is ever effective enough to allow more than gross movement, and implanting cortical electrodes is begging for surgical danger. Like many other medical technologies and a lot of dotcom startups, this is another case of some idiot getting funding to take up an exciting idea that didn't work the last dozen times it was tried, either.
Just f__k off disabled. It really doesn't worth to do this research. It is extremely cruel to animals. It has clearly dead end. It is impossible develop technology that would implant something into brain without damaging sorrounding tissues and without affecting brain work. Why they don't test this stupid cyborg fu___ing devices on humans? Sensles idiotic research like all others (RC bug etc.) that are posted here. I hate them.
But can he love?!?
Seriously, that's the first thing this made me think of, when combined with the 'sensing' robot designs.
It looks like we'll have Star Wars-universe limbs well before we have the energy weapons and light-speed travel.
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