brain browsing

[Marney Beard <Marney.Beard@eng.Sun.COM>]

Someone mentioned brain-wave control last week.  I assume this is the 
reference.
	-- Marney Beard
---------------------------
Paralyzed man controls computer with thoughts

By June Preston

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A paralyzed Georgia man who received a tiny brain
implant has become the first human
to control a computer using only his thoughts.

Known only by his initials, J.R., the 53-year-old man was the second
person to receive the implant, about the
size of the tip of a ballpoint pen, but only the first to successfully
communicate with a computer using his
thoughts, Dr. Roy Bakay, who developed the implant with Dr. Phillip
Kennedy, told Reuters late on Thursday.

``What we've done is enabled a patient who was unable to move his limbs
or speak to communicate through a
computer,'' Bakay, an Emory University researcher, said. ``We have him
think about movement. This sends a
signal to a receiving unit in his scalp, which sends a message to the
computer screen.''

``It's like operating an on/off switch.'' he said. ``The person thinks
about the activity, electrical activity in his
brain increases and sends a message to control the cursor.''

The implants consist of two tiny hollow glass cones coated with
neurotropic chemicals extracted from the
recipients' peripheral nerves. The chemicals encourage nerves to grow
into the cones, penetrating the glass,
Bakay said.

``This puts the cells inside the cone so it keeps the cells going for a
very long time. It is critical to train these
cells in a stable environment,'' he said. ``The nerve tissue grows into
the cone and forms contacts or synapses.

``It's those signals that we pick up. It's like having a little piece of
isolated brain within the glass cone. We are
able to run electrical activity off of that.''

Although Bakay said the research, which began 12 years ago, is in its
infancy, future steps may include
training ``a whole series of cells to do things. There is tremendous
potential.''

He said the goal is to improve a recipient's ability at the computer so
he would be able to type letters and
send e-mail. ''We'd like to get them on the Internet and open
communications to the rest of the world, and
vice versa.

``After that, we'd like for them to use the computer to control their
environments, turn lights on and off,
adjust a bed, call an attendant, turn the TV on or off. Finally, we hope
they will be able to run prosthetic
devices, wheelchairs, even prosthetic limbs''

Bakay and Kennedy decided to use glass cones because metal ''pokes holes
into cells and they die,'' he said.

The two people who have received the implants were both very ill, Bakay
said.

The first recipient died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's
disease) before she could be trained to
control the computer cursor, he said.

J.R. is also in poor health, hospitalized at the U.S. Veterans Affairs
Medical Center in Decatur, Georgia, near
Atlanta. A massive stroke paralyzed him and left him on a ventilator.

Bakay said the first recipient was ``only able to move her eyes up and
down and sideways a little bit,'' but died
three months after receiving the implant.

``She was able to prove all our basic premises for us,'' Bakay said.
``She helped us identify the cells we were
looking for in this project.''

The prognosis for the second patient, who has mastered such simple
computer commands as up, down, left and
right, remains uncertain. Bakay said he was taken to a hospital
intensive care unit Wednesday night after
developing respiratory problems.

``When he gets sick he can't work,'' Bakay said. ``The mind doesn't
function well. It's difficult working with him
when he is at his best, but we're learning a lot from this fellow.''

Bakay said a third recipient likely would be chosen next year after he
and Kennedy fully understand how much
the current subject can accomplish. But he said the project has very
limited financing.

Bakay and Kennedy experimented first with monkeys at Yerkes Regional
Primate Center in Atlanta, then won
permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to try the
implants on three human recipients.

The project's biggest impediment has been money.

``Dr. Kennedy and I are two overworked clinicians who still have
patients to see,'' Bakay said. ``We need some
help. We are hoping some venture capitalist will be interested.''



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