“The whole team was screaming in the room as we watched,” says Courtine, who has seen many failed experiments to restore walking ability. The rhythm of the leg movement was imperfect, but the monkeys’ feet were not dragging and the movement was coordinated enough to support the primates’ weight.
Researchers have previously used brain-reading technology to enable paralysed people to move a robotic arm, give themselves a drink or to move their own hand and play a video game. The brain signals involved in activating muscles in a paralysed leg are less complex than those that guide the hand and all its digits, says Courtine. But researchers studying arm and hand movement have the advantage that even incremental improvements are useful.
One can imagine all kinds of, err, interesting and unexpected side-effects if this device could be hacked.
Via Kazimierz Kurz.
http://www.nature.com/news/brain-implants-allow-paralysed-monkeys-to-walk-1.20967
I think there's no return signal, hence the lack of coordination.
ReplyDeleteGreat results anyhow.
It doesn't happen every day that an article about monkeys and scientists uses the word 'screaming', but doesn't apply it to the monkeys but the scientists.
ReplyDeleteAlso, consider the interesting ways in which such devices could be hacked. Their digital programming interfaces are probably reasonably easy to guard well, but you can't deny them I/O entirely, because they're connected to nerves. Could a clever pattern of tiny rocks on a pavement trigger a buffer overflow, for example? Could a clever high-frequency electric impulse from a stainless steel bus stop bench implement ROWHAMMER?
ReplyDeleteNot so great for the monkey.
ReplyDelete