Medicine: Thought Control

Newsweek, December, 2006 by MONIQUE MUGNIER

Muscular paralysis may soon be a lot less debilitating. John Donoghue, a neuroscientist at Brown University, and colleagues have developed an implantable device that may one day allow patients to control prosthetic limbs with their thoughts. The device has 100 electrodes that are implanted into the motor cortex--the part of the brain that controls movement--and a computer chip that translates the brain signals into commands for the prosthetics.

Test subjects have been able to control a computer, a robotic arm and a wheelchair. Although the device is currently too big to be fully implanted, the researchers are trying to shrink it down to fit entirely inside the skull. A wireless, implantable chip is expected in a few years. Newsweek International