Brain Bridge Brain Bridge
2006/07/13 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia
The system of the image is called BrainGate or cerebral bridge. But the function is more important than the name. This allows giving orders to a computer through thought.
In recent years, a number of studies have been carried out for the creation of this type of systems. Now it seems they have taken a big step forward with BrainGate. The result, at least, is spectacular: a person with paralyzed tips has managed to make work such as using email, moving a robotic arm or playing video games.
All this has been done by young Matt Nagle. Five years ago, a knife collected in the column caused the immobilization of the limbs. In these cases, although motor nerves do not respond, there are often no problems in creating orders in the motor area of the brain.
It is based on this braingate. In the motor area 96 electrodes are placed (in this kind of chip that appears on the coin of the image), through which the cerebral orders are transmitted to the computer. The computer, both on a screen and through a robotic tool, makes movements take place.
But the system has some: only a few movements can be performed and, in addition, when the inside and outside of the body are connected, there is a high risk of infection. In addition, they have tested with other volunteers and the results have not been so good. Therefore, scientists intend to continue investigating to improve the system.
Photo: Leigh R. Hochberg, Mijail D. Serruya, Gerhard M. Friehs, Jon A. Mukand, Maryam Saleh, Abraham H. Caplan, Almut Branner, David Chen, Richard D. Penn and John P. Donoghue, authors of the study.
For more information, different videos can be found on the Nature website.
