Bionic Rats

EmmaLouise99 pointed us over to an article in which scientists have gotten rats to control a simple robot arm through the activity of brain cells. The report comes in this month of Nature Neuroscience, and the obvious applications are for paralyzed people. I remember reading in Discover as well about a similar situation with little go-karts and insect brains-hooking up the sections that controlled wing movement, and letting them they think they were flying, but actually controlling the karts movement.

Comments

Mind control before dictation?

[Dreamweaver]

I wonder, which will come first? The ability to write a paper on your computer simply by thinking at the screen, or the ability to write a paper on your computer by speaking at the screen?
Maybe it's just me, but doesnt it seem odd that we now have the capability to control prosthetics by monitoring brainwave patters, yet we STILL cant come up with a natural language processor? (or even a non-natural language processor that can respond to voice input by non-trained users?)


Dreamweaver

Re:Mind control before dictation?

[Sensor]

well according to your definition people can already write a paper simply by thinking at the screen... they have to move a cursor around to select letters but they can do it.

But I'd also say that it is possible for people to write a paper simply by talking at the screen of their PC using software such as ViaVoice. This approach appeals to me a great deal more than having my head drilled in order to get a very slow typewriter.

The experiment is by no means the first experiment to manage to get its input directly from a brain - just remember that all of these programs are still at an early stage - usually they involve monitoring brain activity when trying to perform a task and then fitting electrodes over the active region and using this as a trigger to some device.

Thats exactly what they did with these mice, they taught them to press a lever and then watched for similar activity and assumed that this was a sign that they where thinking about pushing the lever (as I understand it this is a perfectly reasonable assumption - but it is an assumption).

All of this is a long way from being able to pull natural language commands directly from our synapses. Cool as that would be I don't expect to live to see it and I'm only 23.

Tom

One question:

[Raptor CK]

If all this is true, where's my mind-controlled 150-foot tall Mecha complete with small futuristic arsenal capable of leveling Redmond?

That is all.


Christopher Kalos

Jacking In

[Dunx]

I suppose the implications of Neuromancer/Matrix-style neural interfaces are almost too obvious to mention, but it goes to show that jacking in to the network is closer than expected.

What I would like to know is whether the rats' normal cognitive functions were affected? That is, apart from the obvious hint of having a huge great wire sticking out of their heads, were the rats unaware of the probes and behaving in a pretty much normal way? I wouldn't fancy a neural interface if I'm not me after its installation.

Apart from this small detail, I can see the following barriers to using this technology for general control of computers:

• invasiveness - is this kind of technique ever likely to be implementable without massively invasive surgery? Keyhole techniques don't really apply when you have to drill a hole to get in.
• training - in these experiments, great care was taken to learn what neural activity indicated thirst in the subjects. Is there any way this individual training could be genericised?

Cool thing, though.
--

Re:Jacking In

[sjames]

Ability to put signals back into the brain, however (ala "Matrix") still looks like it's a long way off.

I'm not looking for it next week, but the needed tech for that is coming along. Research being done now on chemical signals in neural regeneration may provide a key. Imagine getting rod cells from a clone's retina, and getting them to form connections in the brain. You now have an opto-isolater which can stimulate neural circuits without forming scar tissue.

Linux Driver for Rat?

[Pablo!]

Catch-all comment: So when does the linux driver come out?

Rat-controlled?

[Maximilian]

> scientists have gotten rats to control a simple robot arm through the activity of brain cells. ... and the obvious applications are for paralyzed people.

Jeez, I don't know, the last thing I'd want is to have to carry around my own rat to control my body. :)

Secret of Nimh, 2000

[Nerf Vader]

Okay, so there's a computer programmer walking down the street with a rat on his shoulder....an old lady sees this and says: "what are you doing with that filthy creature?"

"Squeak, squeak" says the rat.

:^)

Wouldn't it be better...

[NeoTron]

...to find ways of repairing/reconnecting the spinal cord/nerves?



[/analogy]
It seems to me that if I cut the wire to my telephone, it's better to reconnect that cut wire, rather than to find some expensively convoluted way of connecting my telephone to a radio transceiver, then connecting the other wire to a similar device to get the telephone working again.
[end analogy]

I can see the research justified if the aim is to find a thought interface to a computer etc. But I feel the money would be better spent inventing methods of reconnecting the severed "wires" from the brain to [whatever limb(s) etc.].

Just my 2p worth.

rgds.