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MARCH 15, 2005
By Olga Kharif The New Science of Mind over Matter A chip implanted in a young quadriplegic's brain is already improving his quality of life. Soon the benefits may be more widespread
A 25-year-old man unable to move from the neck down recently did what many assumed impossible. After a knife attack that had left him paralyzed, all he could move was his head, which he used to push a switch and summon a nurse. And he could steer his wheelchair by blowing into a straw near his face. That was it. Then last June, a Foxborough (Mass.) company called CyberKinetics opened the man's skull and implanted a special chip no larger than a baby aspirin. That implant has given him a few additional and precious abilities. When hooked to a special computer via a cable, the chip translates the young man's thoughts into commands that let him move a cursor across a PC screen and open e-mail. He can draw a circle with a computer painting program. And he can use a robotic hook to perform simple tasks like picking up a candy and sliding it across a table. All he has to do is think. FLURRY OF RESEARCH. Welcome to the daunting yet promising world of "thought technology." After more than two decades of research, the use of thoughts to manipulate computers and robots is no longer solely the stuff of science fiction. Several groundbreaking studies, employing brain implants as well as noninvasive methods of reading thoughts, have begun or been completed in the past year. In fact, more than half of the scientific papers in this field, called brain-to-computer interaction (BCI), have been published in the past two years, notes Jonathan Wolpaw, a research physician at Wadsworth Center, the New York State Health Dept.'s research laboratory in upstate Albany. Why now? Credit major advances in information technology as well as brain science. Brain surgeries are no longer rare: Thousands of Parkinson's disease patients have had special devices implanted in their brains to alleviate uncontrollable shaking and other symptoms. The implants themselves have improved, so the body doesn't reject them as furiously. And significant development has been achieved in software used to interpret the brain's signals and convert them into commands understood by computers. REPLACEMENT CIRCUITS. But increased demand for thought technology remains the biggest reason for the field's progress. Today, 4 million Americans live with paralysis resulting from any of a wide array of factors including car accidents, strokes, and cerebral palsy, according to the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation. Their numbers could skyrocket as the U.S. population ages. Scientists hope that thought technology will reduce the impact of such disabilities. People with spinal-cord injuries, for example, often lose their ability to walk because the communications network between their brain and their legs has been interrupted. The brain still commands the leg muscles to move, but they don't hear its orders. Thought technology, scientists hope, will bridge this communications gap by sending the brain's command to an implant in the paralyzed legs that would, in turn, relay the message to the muscles. "Our goal is for you to see paralyzed people eating at a restaurant and for you not to know that they are paralyzed," says John Donoghue, founder and chief scientific officer at CyberKinetics. THINKING UP DINNER. A variant of such technology, one that doesn't require implants, also could assist the military. For example, soldiers may need to guide an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), run for cover, and fire at the enemy -- all at the same time. BCI technology could potentially ease this multitasking by making the guiding of the surveillance UAV as easy as moving one's head to the right. In another recent experiment, conducted by Andrew Schwartz, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, two monkeys with brain implants had to get a robotic arm, controlled by their thoughts, to feed them vegetables and fruit. The little guys got their bananas, thanks to electrodes embedded into their brains. The electrodes picked up what the neurons, which conduct electrical and chemical signals through the brain, were saying. When neurons responsible for moving the monkey's hand to the left became more active, for example, that meant the monkey wanted to move its hand -- mirrored by the robotic hand -- to the left. A special program picked up the neurons' order and translated it into commands the robotic arm understood. "All we need to do is to listen [to the neurons]," says Schwartz. PAINSTAKING PROGRESS. Sounds exciting, but plenty of work is still needed before thought technology hits the mainstream. It's hard to imagine human volunteers agreeing to have a chip implanted anywhere, let alone the brain. That's one reason researchers are developing a noninvasive, skull-cap-type technology. In December, Wadsworth Center's Wolpaw published the results of a study in which four humans without implants moved a cursor across the screen or typed with their thoughts. The subjects wore special caps equipped with electrodes that picked up the brain's signals via the scalp's surface. It took the subjects from 9 to 26 hours of training to learn to move a cursor across the screen and click on groupings of letters. Using this method, they could type one to two words a minute. Such technology, even with its limitations, opens a new communications channel for those with paralysis or an inability to speak. "People in this situation aren't as impatient as the rest of us," Wolpaw says. And the speed can be improved with computer programs that guess the word a subject is trying to spell after only a couple of letters are typed. ROBOTIC LULLABY. So-called cognitive software capable of analyzing human behavior can help as well. Sandia National Laboratories is working with DaimlerChrysler (DCX ) and the Defense Advanced Projects Agency on a program that uses a brain-activity feed and other data to analyze driver behavior. If you're slouching behind the wheel or stressed, it might deduce that you're tired and tell your cell phone to hold an incoming call until you stop, so you aren't distracted at a moment when not at your best, explains John Wagner, a Sandia research manager. In the future, such software could ease BCI by ascertaining your intent. Say you're calling a robotic arm to come over. Your cognitive software might know that you feel tired and sleepy, and deduce that you're calling the robot for help getting into bed. So it might clarify your request by instructing the robot to bring along an extra blanket, too. Of course, these capabilities remain years away. The CyberKinetics computer that interprets brain signals picked up by that tiny chip is about the size of a washing machine. Over the next several years, researchers hope to reduce it to the size of a personal digital assistant. Far off as thought technology's promise may be, it will happen. After all, a 25-year-old is already drawing circles with his mind.  Kharif is a BusinessWeek Online reporter in Portland, Ore.
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