I worked for this group over the summer on the next generation of electrodes for their experiments. As was pointed out in the other posts, and a bit in the article, this uses electrodes that go down into the brain. I picks up signals from the part of the brain that plans to make the motion. The big reasons for this is that if you pick them up later (say at the part that takes in the planned movement and turns it into signals for the muscles), there are some problems such as: a> that translating portion of the brain likes to reqire itself. This allows it to overcome some injuries. Electrodes are treated as an injury so in the long term it would likely try to wire itself around your recording device. b> more injuries/diseases knock out the translating stage then the planning stage, thus making this useful to more patients. It's a shame I didn't finish the electrode modifications because my next job was going to be trying to resurrect an old robotic arm to try hooking the monkey up to. *sigh*
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I worked for this group over the summer on the next generation of electrodes for their experiments. As was pointed out in the other posts, and a bit in the article, this uses electrodes that go down into the brain. I picks up signals from the part of the brain that plans to make the motion. The big reasons for this is that if you pick them up later (say at the part that takes in the planned movement and turns it into signals for the muscles), there are some problems such as: a> that translating portion of the brain likes to reqire itself. This allows it to overcome some injuries. Electrodes are treated as an injury so in the long term it would likely try to wire itself around your recording device. b> more injuries/diseases knock out the translating stage then the planning stage, thus making this useful to more patients. It's a shame I didn't finish the electrode modifications because my next job was going to be trying to resurrect an old robotic arm to try hooking the monkey up to. *sigh*