Thursday, July 13, 2006

BrainGate leads thoughts into action

The BrainGate Neural Interface designed to restore functionality for a limited, immobile group of severely motor-impaired individuals is expected to create a direct link between a person's brain and a computer, translating neural activity into action.

The BrainGate System is based on Cyberkinetics' platform technology to sense, transmit, analyze and apply the language of neurons. The System consists of a sensor that is implanted on the motor cortex of the brain and a device that analyzes brain signals. The principle of operation behind the BrainGate System is that with intact brain function, brain signals are generated even though they are not sent to the arms, hands and legs.

Matthew Nagle, though paralysed from the neck down could open a simulated e-mail, play a retro arcade computer game and adjust the volume on the television set by the power of thought alone, and while talking at the same time.

The 25-year-old Nagle has been on the clinical trial of the BrainGate system and it has show promising results for him, a prospect that gives hope to the aspirations of many others like him. Nagle is well on his way to become the first bionic man. This is real life, pushing the limits of technology ahead of the American TV series The Six Million Dollar Man.

British scientists hailed the the medical breakthrough as a landmark yesterday that could bring hope to hundreds of thousands of people disabled by accidents, stroke or other diseases.

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