Thought Control
From: Industrial Physicist - September 2002 - Vol. 8, No. 4, P. 14 

Initiatives to develop technologies that would allow paralysis victims to
perform simple activities - moving a cursor on a computer screen, for example
- by thought have been constrained by inaccurate motion reproduction and
prolonged training periods, but Brown University researchers have reported a
significant breakthrough in Nature. They have demonstrated that a monkey
could learn to move a cursor by brainpower in a matter of minutes through a
simple algorithm that harnesses the output of a handful of neurons. "Our
results demonstrate that a simple mathematical approach, combined with a
subject's own learning abilities, can provide accurate goal-oriented
control," explains Brown University's John Donoghue. Electrodes implanted in
the motor cortex first record 60 seconds of neuronal output as the monkey
physically directs the cursor. Linear coefficients produced by a linear
regression equation are then used to devise a program that controls cursor
movement via such output. Afterwards, cursor control is switched from the
monkey's hand to the connected neurons. "In some trials, the monkey stopped
using the manipulator altogether," notes graduate student Mijail D. Serruya.
Developing technologies that can be applied to human subjects is the goal of
Cyberkinetics, the company set up by the Brown researchers; paralyzed
patients could potentially use such methods to not only communicate, but
manipulate a robot arm, or even partly restore bodily movement.  

http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/0930m.html#item15

Related story in Scientific American: Controlling Robots with the Mind
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=00065FEA-DAEA-1D80-90FB809EC5880000

