Print“The idea is to understand and decode cortical activity through neural arrays that are placed on the brain, decode that information, then transmit it wirelessly to prostheses and other devices.”
Thought-driven prosthetics pioneered by a new collaboration between University of California neuroscientists and engineers may reach people coping with lost sensory, motor, and cognitive functions within five years.
The newly launched Center for Neural Engineering and Prostheses will engage dozens of U.C. San Francisco and U.C. Berkeley faculty and students in the fields of neuroscience, neurosurgery and engineering. Together they'll be pushing beyond the limited options now available for helping people with catastrophic neurologic injury says center co-director Edward Chang, an assistant professor at UCSF's Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience.
“The idea is to understand and decode cortical activity through neural arrays that are placed on the brain, decode that information, then transmit it wirelessly to prostheses and other devices,” says Chang. “We're interested in the neural activity that allows someone to move their arm or talk. In the future, we hope to translate their thoughts to actual peripheral movement of these machines.”
Real-time signals from the brain could one-day guide robotic arms, legs, and computer cursors. The team is working to both circumvent damaged or missing neural circuits and eventually find ways to rehabilitate lost neural functions in people with conditions such as stroke, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, and Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The first devices utilizing technologies the group is developing could become available within five years, estimates Chang.
The group's approach is to leverage the brain's power to change, biofeedback, and smart machine learning algorithms to allow it to control machines, says the center's other co-director, Jose Carmena, a UC Berkeley assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences.
The work builds on what Chang says has been a rare opportunity to monitor the surface electrical activity of individuals’ brains undergoing brain surgery at UCSF.
The program will receive joint funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
March 31, 2011
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-think_it_do_it.html
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