Monkeys have been given the ability to control two virtual arms simultaneously using thought alone. The same technology might soon give people who are paralyzed control of an exoskeleton that they can move with their mind.
Monkeys and humans have previously controlled a single prosthetic arm using their thoughts. It is done using electrodes placed in the brain, which recognize specific patterns of electric activity that occur when a person thinks about moving. This pattern is then translated into actual movement in the prosthesis.
Until now, though, it has only been possible to control a single limb this way. That is because when the brain thinks about moving both arms at once, the activity is not merely a sum of what you might see if you moved each arm individually, but a completely different pattern.
To achieve such bi-manual movement, Miguel Nicolelis at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and his colleagues recorded the individual electrical activity from almost 500 single neurons in the somatosensory and motor cortex on both sides of a monkey's brain, the areas responsible for sensing body position, touch and movement.
"We believe it's the largest number of neurons simultaneously recorded in a non-human primate," says Nicolelis.
Here the Video: Monkey controls virtual arms with its thoughts
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