(A) The mobile robotic wheelchair, which seats a monkey, was moved from one of the three starting locations (dashed circles) to a grape dispenser. The wireless recording system records the spiking activities from the monkey’s head stage, and sends the activities to the wireless receiver to decode the wheelchair movement. (B) Schematic of the brain regions from which we recorded units tuned to either velocity or steering. Red dots correspond to units in M1, blue from PMd and green from the somatosensory cortex. (C) Three video frames show Monkey K drive toward the grape dispenser. The right panel shows the average driving trajectories (dark blue) from the three different starting locations (green circle) to the grape dispenser (red circle). The light blue ellipses are the standard deviation of the trajectories. – Nature Scientific Reports
At Duke University scientists managed to link the brain of a monkey to a robotic wheelchair to allow the animal to control it using thought alone. The brain-computer interface has two electrode arrays that read signals from about 300 neurons within brain regions responsible for motion and sensation. A computer interprets these signals and converts them to move the wheelchair where the monkey wants it to go. This certainly points toward severely paralyzed people regaining personal autonomy by being able to navigate their own wheelchairs and other motorized devices.
The research took about three years to complete, which involved implantations into two monkeys and subsequent training. The training allowed the team to spot the brain signals that are related to willful motion, which the algorithms inside the computer used as templates to control the wheelchair. Once the monkeys began using the new interface, they continued to improve their ability to control the wheelchair. Moreover, the monkeys developed signals that were previously absent that seem to relate to their ability to gauge how far their thoughts would move the wheelchair toward a destination.
Check out video of a monkey operating a wheelchair with thought alone:
Study in Scientific Reports: Wireless Cortical Brain-Machine Interface for Whole-Body Navigation in Primates…
More from Duke Medicine…