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