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ATLANTA – It sounds likescience fiction (search), but researchers atDuke University have demonstrated that lab monkeys with tiny brain implants can control the movement of an artificial limb — just by thinking about it.
In the study, a monkey played a video game using a joystick while a computer recordedhis brain signals. The game controlled a robotic arm in another room.
After a while,the joystick wasunplugged so the limb was no longer manually operated but instead controlled only by the animal’s brain signals.
The monkey quickly learned thathe could still play the game — and thus control the artificial limb — merely by thinking about it.Duke University Medical Center (search)researchers were stunned.
The study might offer hope for human victims ofparalysis (search).
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