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."
Sucky job (Score:5, Funny)
Who's the grad student who had to break those monkeys spines?
Re:Sucky job (Score:4, Funny)
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Wow.
Second post and you already invoked Godwin's law, and even on a party totally unrelated to the post.
My hat is off to you.
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.
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Actually, they used members of a Congressional committee tasked with investigating executive branch wrongdoing...
So, spines weren't an issue.
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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:Sucky job (Score:4, Funny)
Oooh ooh ooh I finally get to say it!
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!
Re:Sucky job (Score:5, Funny)
"ooh ooh ooh" ?
- Did one of the monkeys escape and start posting on slashdot?
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It was less "oooh oooh" banana and more "ooh ooh" -flails hand wildly- "teacher teacher I know I KNOW!" d:
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*sigh*
WHOOOSSH!!!
Sorry lad, it had to be done.
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e.g. Arnold Horshack.
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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
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What was that? I don't get it. What?
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I used to work in the University of Washington monkey lab.
The review board actually allowed lots of cruel things happen to monkeys "in the name of science."
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I'd bet that depends on your view of "cruel" now doesn't it.
PETA would like to thank you for your post.
so would the CLIT commander.
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so would the CLIT commander.
As does the LABIA movement
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Animal studies tend to involve some cruel but necessary things. For instance, the biologists on my research team are developing a new targeted therapy for a certain type of tumor. But in order to test it out, they needed to order transgenic mice that are genetically engineered to develop this tumor. They treat the mice well, but it doesn't change the fact that the mice are going to go through a lot of suffering and that their sole purpose in life is to become terminally ill.
I don't like it (and fortunately,
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Yes (Score:5, Funny)
But can you teach them to type??
Re:Yes (Score:5, Funny)
But can you teach them to type??
Of course; that's how they expect their thesis to be written.
Ob. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yes (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes. I offer Wikipedia as proof.
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*Yes. I offer Conservapedia as proof.*
Fixed that for you.
Dear God, free us from religion... (Score:4, Funny)
That site is real, isn't it? For the first few minutes of reading I convinced myself that it was just a funny hoax site, but the deeper I went into it the more scared I became...
Would it be irony if I prayed to God to free us from religion? I still don't have that whole irony thing down yet.
Re:Dear God, free us from religion... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is irony:
God, please protect me from your followers.
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Obligatory adage:
God is great, it's just his ground staff that sucks.
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(okay, that genius idea was totally Dresden Codak's, credit where credit is due.)
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That site is real, isn't it? For the first few minutes of reading I convinced myself that it was just a funny hoax site, but the deeper I went into it the more scared I became...
Don't underestimate the creativity of our US friends. Some of their hoaxes are so intricate that they sometimes turn into new cults. There was such a backfire in the 19th century that still makes waves in the NW US.
Regarding the aformentionned site (which I didn't know and caused many a facepalm as I browsed it), I think this bit sums it up best :
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Since I'm going to be working on my Master's thesis soon methinks paying the university for the monkeys might not be a bad idea. But, I want to finish ASAP. I am willing to pay for a Beowulf-cluster of typing monkeys. And I want a guarantee that the monkeys will not screw-up. I do no want my thesis to be cluster-fucked!
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I've heard rumor that a million of them can reproduce the works of Shakespeare. Oh, and fling poo. I almost forgot that part.
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A million paralyzed monkeys at a million typewriters!
Re:oo oo oo oooo snort (Score:4, Interesting)
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Odd note, but monkeys seem to have a preference for holding down the s key on american keyboard layouts.
Apparently, grad students will write a thesis about anything...
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Yeah, but do you want a tireless monkey/robot arm capable of launching poo vast distances? My god man, the horror. :-P
Talk about your Weapons of Mass Defecation!!
Cheers
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Wow.
Motion tracking, monkey-brain driven, automated excrement flinging, lawn fertilizing, and home security device. Is that patentable??
That's the funniest thing I've heard all week! :-P
Cheers
Better title would be.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Better title would be.... (Score:5, Funny)
That gold won't farm itself...
Re:Better title would be.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Indeed, while that neuron surgery thing sounds amazing, I was more shocked at the fact that monkeys actually play videogames.
Then I realized... Are the monkeys smarter than we thought or are we just dumberer than we think we aren't not, now what I meen?
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The "videogame" is moving a rectangle into a rectangular box. It's not like they're playing Psychonauts or Katamari Damacy.
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They're able to communicate with humans using hand signals, able to solve tasks multiple ways, and can even learn behaviors by copying other individuals.
I read somewhere (but don't quote me on this) that some monkeys have around the same intelligence as a 2-year-old humans.
I'd say that makes 'em pretty smart, especially if you look at why they do these things: their brains are remarkably similar to ours, except that their cerebral cortex is less developed.
There you go, monkeys a
Re:Better title would be.... (Score:4, Funny)
I bet they've already learned how to get around DRM.
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Re:Better title would be.... (Score:5, Funny)
You were killed by b33st13b0y.
b33st13b0y: lol pwned
b33st13b0y: ur mom is ghey
b33st13b0y: suk it
I think we've known this for quite some time.
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1 = i
(My apologies to anyone that works with complex numbers.)
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no one works with complex numbers, for complex numbers don't exist: they're all imaginary.
Re:Better title would be.... (Score:4, Informative)
no one works with complex numbers, for complex numbers don't exist: they're all imaginary.
Except the part of them that's real...
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My first girlfriend was like the number i - irrational and imaginary.
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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.
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Amazing (Score:5, Funny)
Amazing! This is truly a wonderful time to be a monkey.
Well, I just hope (Score:2, Funny)
they mounted a scratch monkey first.
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Entirely predictable and yet still laugh-out-loud funny. Well played, sir.
Correlation != Causation (Score:4, Funny)
The researchers who published this should have 'Correlation is not causation' written in giant billboards in front of their houses.
Just 2 monkeys regained movement after the experiment does not mean that rerouting brain signals past blocked nerve pathways using a single neuron controlled by a computer did anything at all. They should have waited until they had ruled out other possibilities, like divine intervention, before publishing results. For shame!
Seems ripe for exploitation (Score:5, Funny)
Seems ripe for exploitation...
"...Quit hitting yourself! Quit hitting yourself..."
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Wireless technology? I hope they have something better than WEP.
Then again, we could set up some pretty cool programs. How about every time someone types "Frosty Piss" they slap themselves.
Sooo... What if they connected a human's brain (Score:5, Interesting)
If so, can we control its entire body?
If so, can we do it remotely, through a wire to a cell phone.
If so, how long until someone decides to use monkeys as freedom fighters?
Yes, science should never go down this path, but hey, it is still possible to look down the paths
Re:Sooo... What if they connected a human's brain (Score:4, Funny)
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If so, how long until someone decides to use monkeys as freedom fighters?
Lawnmower Man. [youtube.com]
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People will probably laugh at the idea, but ... once we have bionic enhancements superior to what evolution came up with, it will probably be cheaper to raise monkeys and fit them with the enhancements and dump them loose on the enemy, than to hire human soldiers. Remember, humans will require more and more to put their lives on the line, while monkeys and manufacturing will just get cheaper...
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Why bother with a monkey though. The main desirable thing about a monkey is its brain, so if you're only interested in the body.. you might as well use something more powerful, like a tiger, or a shark.. and possibly mount a weapon on them...
Is it me or do I smell a meme somewhere nearby?
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Monkeys can be dangerous. The famous fighting monkey Jacco Macacco [wikipedia.org], for instance, was notorious for killing dogs by jumping onto their necks and biting out their throats.
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Your premise would explain why a monkey got to be president. Perhaps Karl Rove is still running things after all!
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I hope you're not serious. It would be far easier and quicker to use robots or human suicide-bombers or just about anything else, really.
Yeah, but watching monkeys blow themselves up would be way more fun.
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It is [wikipedia.org]
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
George Bush? (Score:2, Insightful)
where's the video (Score:3, Interesting)
Where's the video of the mokeys playing video games with the bionic nerves?
WoW (Score:2, Funny)
That explains those WoW players flinging poop at me.
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...
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> 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.
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If I am not mistaken, I remember reading that certain muscles, cardiovascular in particular, do not need to be controlled directly by the brain or even the spine. They contract at a regular interval on their own.
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I don't need to. I can wire in a monkey brain and use it instead. People who know me might suggest that this has already happened.
The medical uses will be great, but the technology will be funded and advanced by MMORG companies who, finally realizing that their AI sucks, will move on to using monkey brains in jars.
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Yes, yes, save the world and help the poor blah blah - that's old news, we hear that all day long. But this is news! We're talking PRO GAMER MONKEYS here!!!
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Err ... that's not how the heart works. The heart contains its own pacemaker, which can be influenced by to autonomous nervous system and hormones, but even in the absence of such will make the heart beat.
Also, modern pacemakers can actually sense the activity level and regulate their frequency accordingly.
You could do the same thing for the lungs as well
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Thanks for correcting my understanding of the heart's pacemaker.
Hopefully the diaphragm is able to be connected like this, I believe it would as it behaves as a skeletal muscle? (and what is that darn nerve called?)
As far as sensory information goes, I could see this being used for that, if not perfect it would be better than no sensations. The fun part about those is that, while binary signals may work for them, I would really prefer no sensation to the choice of "OK" and "OMG MY HAND IS ON FIRE" with no g
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Hopefully the diaphragm is able to be connected like this, I believe it would as it behaves as a skeletal muscle?
Yes, it does. However, the question is whether you can get the respiratory center of the brain to recognize the "bypass" - else you could breathe voluntarily, but would stop as soon as you stop thinking about it (or fall asleep, for example).
The fun part about those is that, while binary signals may work for them, I would really prefer no sensation to the choice of "OK" and "OMG MY HAND IS ON F
So, that's who beat me! (Score:2, Funny)
Monkey's were not paralyzed... (Score:2)
They were made paralyzed by "scientists" aka torturers/mutilators. That's an important distinction.
It really amazes me that we still allow this kind of "research" on sentient beings, who are well aware of themselves and their surroundings.
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See here [slashdot.org]. Monkeys will only get cheaper :D
Besides, trolly-troll, they were only temporarily paralyzed ( for example as mentioned here [slashdot.org]. )
Now, back to your hole.
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What's wrong with this picture? (Score:2)
This seems to me to be an experiment that's pushing the bounds of ethics.
A friend of mine happened to work in the Primate dept. at Santa Cruz in the 1960s when they inherited the Harry Harlow rhesus monkeys used in the famous 1950s isolation experiments. They were totally psychologically screwed up for as long as they lived. While I'm not an a
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:hallelujah (Score:4, Funny)
They have their specialization and you have yours.
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Now we can reuse stuff that's already built in.
Re:hallelujah (Score:5, Informative)
It's certainly true that proprioception (the ability to sense joint location) and sensation of muscle tension are useful feedback systems in coordinating limb movements. It's well known in the field (I'm a neuroscientist), however, that several neurological conditions rob patients of these sensations and they're still able to move their limbs effectively (though not perfectly). I'd guess that a patient who was paralyzed wouldn't mind being able to move their arms again, even if they couldn't feel where they were without looking.
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Hmmmm... that would also mean there needs to be two way communication, not just from the motor cortex to the muscle but nerves and paths back for the feedback. I am going to guess that the former is much easier than the latter.
Re:hallelujah (Score:4, Informative)
I wouldn't be too sure. This is just the latest in a long string of research findings that point toward an astounding degree of neural plasticity in adults. At this point, if I had to guess, I'd say that wiring one sensory nerve from the general area back to a single neuron would end up restoring a noticeable degree of "feeling".
'Cause you know, neurons that fire together wire together.
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You find it terrible because you know what your leg is supposed to feel like. The point your parent poster was making is that there are people who do not know what their leg feels like in normal conditions. This of course being due to the fact that their leg doesn't work in normal conditions.
The fact that you even relate the two is asinine.
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You've never had a blow job, have you?
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And Dick Cheney becomes president. Not only are you a nut, but you aren't even a smart nut.
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They can make the monkey punch himself, that would be funny as hell.
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Right, because permanent damage was done to the monkeys.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromuscular-blocking_drugs [wikipedia.org]
Trolly troll-troll!