Single Neuron Wired To Muscle Un-Paralyzes Monkeys 180
GalaticGrub writes "A pair of paralyzed monkeys regained the ability to move their arms after researchers wired individual neurons to the monkeys' arm muscles. A team of researchers at the University of Washington temporarily paralyzed each monkey's arm, then rerouted brain signals from a single neuron in the motor cortex around the blocked nerve pathway via a computer. When the neuron fired above a certain rate, the computer translated the signal into a jolt of electricity to the arm muscle, causing it to contract. The monkeys practiced moving their arms by playing a video game."
Better title would be.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Yes (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes. I offer Wikipedia as proof.
Re:Better title would be.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Sucky job (Score:5, Insightful)
"Who's the grad student who had to break those monkeys spines?"
The subjects were actually grad students costumed as monkeys.
Lab monkeys are too valuable to use.
George Bush? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:hallelujah (Score:3, Insightful)
Now we can reuse stuff that's already built in.
Re:Yes (Score:2, Insightful)
*Yes. I offer Conservapedia as proof.*
Fixed that for you.
Re:Sucky job (Score:5, Insightful)
No one broke the monkeys' spines. The article [nature.com] states that the spinal neurons innervating the wrist muscles were temporarily blocked using a local anesthetic. What's particularly amazing about this study is that the monkeys were able to quickly learn to control their wrists using the cortical neurons that the computer was monitoring, even if those neurons were not involved in control of the wrist before paralysis.
I'm a friend of the paper's author and am certain that neither the researchers nor any sane review board would have allowed monkeys to be permanently injured to perform this study; it just wouldn't be necessary.
Re:Better title would be.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Playing video games is the standard way to teach monkeys tasks such as this. After all, we're monkeys and we don't seem to have any trouble plopping down in front of a video game for thousands of hours.
sweet!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Am I the only one who's more interested in the medical significance of this, instead of the silly aspect of monkey-gaming? Holy crap guys, use your brains.
This means that we have the potential to repair neural damage, potentially severe damage as well!
I see particular use with pacemakers. Rather than just pulse the heart at a given frequency, read what the brain wants the heart to do, and do that! You could do the same thing for the lungs as well, although I'm not sure how often someone who damages that nerve makes it to the hospital in time.
Other use could be with amputation victims. Helping restore function to reattached appendages/digits, or controlling prosthesis...
I wonder if, further down the line, it would be possible to do this to sensory nerves as well, not just motor control/response...
Re:sweet!! (Score:3, Insightful)
> This means that we have the potential to repair neural damage, potentially severe damage as well!
And paraplegics will get to walk again.... no stem cells required. Ok, that is an offtopic troll, but it just needed sayin.
If this story turns out to be the real deal it is going to be major world changing stuff. Imagine the possibilities! Implant a few sensors or better yet refine our ability to pick up on these signals without poking wires into brains and remotely control all sorts of things.
Re:Dear God, free us from religion... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is irony:
God, please protect me from your followers.
Re:Sucky job (Score:3, Insightful)
It's hard to tell in the sea of infinite monkeys that were already here.
After a while, the monkey all start to blend together and become indistinct. :-P
Cheers
Re:Sucky job (Score:3, Insightful)