Brain Implant Gives New Life to Severely Disabled

Neuroscientists in Massachusetts have recently installed a chip into the brain of a man, allowing him to check his email and turn off lights by simply thinking about it. Since June, the 25 year old man has been able to do things normal quadriplegics could only dream of doing, thanks to a new brain implant chip that is only 4 square millimeters. The results of the first implant were announced earlier this month at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Conference in San Diego, California. The chip, known as BrainGate, has been developed by neurotechnology company Cyberkenetics, and has been studied for years by researchers at Brown University in Rhode Island. Five more people are expected to receive the chip within the next year, to further research the safety and utility of the chip, according to CNN. This could provide seemingly infinite opportunities for those with severe disabilities to lead more normal lives. John Donoghue, cofounder of the 2001 Cyberkenetics company and neuroscience professor at Brown, said that BrainGate was designed to help paralyzed people control wheelchairs, as well as communicate using email and computer based systems. Donoghue has received the Innovation Award from Discover Magazine for his work with BrainGate. His first research on the matter appeared in Nature Magazine in 2002. In the first test, the chip had been attatched to a monkeys brain, allowing the monkey to play a simple pinball game without having to touch anything. The chip, which contains 100 electrodes, each thinner than a hair, is attached to the motor cortex area of the brain. The electrodes detect neural electric activity. The activity sensor is connected to a small computer, via a tiny wire, which is mounted to the outside of the skull. John Mukand of the Sergeant Rehabilitation Center, and one of the main overseers of the project, feels that the results are extremely promising, even though testing is still in its preliminary stages. “We now have early evidence that a person unable to move their arms, hands and legs can quickly gain control of a system which uses thoughts to control a computer and perform meaningful tasks. With additional development this may represent a significant breakthrough for people with severe disabilities,” he told CNN reporters earlier this month. Until now, controlling things with thoughts was something found only in science fiction. If such a chip can be used to help those with severe disabilities, imagine its capabilities in a healthy brain. While such technology is still decades away, there may be a day, perhaps even for the next generation, when we wont ever have to get up to do anything. Interestingly, a chip designed to help quadriplegics may give the non-disabled the unfortunate opportunity to act like one.