Brain power: your wish is the computer's command

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2006

PARIS (AFP) — The sci-fi dream of using brain power to move or speak is now within reach, according to two studies on brain-computer interface technology due out Thursday in the science journal Nature.

Advances in neuromotor prosthetics, the researchers say, could offer a revolutionary way for people with brain or spinal injuries to move, communicate and manipulate objects.

In the first study, led by Leigh Hochberg of the Massachussetts General Hospital (MGH) and John Donoghue of Brown University, a 25-year-old man paralyzed after a spinal cord injury three years ago was able to open email, operate a television and open and close a prosthetic hand -- all by imagining movement.

The test subject was wired with 96 electrode sensors in the motor cortex part of...