Saturday, May 19, 2012

Cyborgs May One Day Roam the Earth

The people involved in the clinical trial of "BrainGate", which is working on connecting electrical signals in the brain to "external devices", released this video of a stroke victim using the neural interface system to manipulate a robotic arm. Although it will undoubtedly be many years before this technology is widely available (due both to expensiveness and to controversy that will probably surround this advancement as it has stem cell research or cloning), I think it is super cool that technology has come so far and can offer people a second chance at life.
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1 comment:

Rebecca Hu said...

I think this video certainly calls tribute to the power of science – we have come a long way, especially in the neurological field, since our first attempt at treatment of the simplistic disorders. The most moving part of the video was the patient’s look of utter shock and joy upon seeing herself “lift” the bottle to her mouth, an action that most of us do without even thinking everyday of our lives. Such a reaction should remind us of the power and importance of our delicate neurological circuits, the whole of which make up our brain and all of our cognitive processes, but the slightest impairment of which can affect our body and our mind greatly.
The only concern I have of this brain implant system is founded on the basis of neural plasticity – in particular, those that have lost contact with their limbs (whether physically or mentally) for such a long time have potentially re-mapped the somatosensory cortex in their brain so that those regions of the cortex that are dedicated to triggering sensations in the arm have been reduced over time; thus, the BrainGate system’s robotic arm may not have as fast impulses and thought-to-movement swiftness as a regular human arm would. Nevertheless, I am amazed at the speed of scientific development and the wonders that scientific discovery could do to the medical world.

May 21, 2012 at 6:47 AM

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