Brain sensor allows mind-control
A sensor implanted in a paralysed man's brain has enabled him to control objects by using his thoughts alone.
The experimental set-up allowed the man, who has no limb movement at all, to open e-mail, play a computer game, and pinch a prosthetic hand's fingers.
The US team behind the sensor hopes its technology can one day be incorporated into the body to restore the movement of paralysed limbs themselves.
The Massachusetts-based team's study is published in the journal Nature.
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Lead researcher Dr Leigh Hochberg, a neurologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital, said: "One of the exciting results from the trial is that this part of the brain, the motor cortex, could still be activated voluntarily by this gentleman with spinal cord injury.
"The fact that this activity was still there, despite the injury that had occurred several years ago, is very encouraging for our potential ability to harness those signals to control an external device."
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But Professor Miguel Nicolelis, a neurobiologist from Duke University, was critical of the research.
He told the BBC's Science in Action programme that although some positive signs had been seen for one patient, the paper showed that the technology did not work in the second, older patient.
He said: "When you decide, like this company did, to go into clinical trials for an invasive technique the stakes are very high.
"They should have demonstrated something that lasts for a long period of time, that it is reliable and safe, and that it can restore much more elaborate functions. I don't think that this paper shows that.
"I think it was too early to use this kind of technology in this kind of clinical trial."
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