FDA approves brain-implant tests
Chips to be used to help the paralyzed
From: Associated Press
By: Justin Pope

For years, futurists have dreamed of machines that can read minds, then act
on instructions as they are thought. Now human trials are set to begin on a
brain-computer interface involving implants. 

Cyberkinetics Inc. of Foxboro, MA, has received Food and Drug Administration
approval to begin a clinical trial in which four-square millimeter chips will
be placed beneath the skulls of paralyzed patients.  

If successful, the chips could allow patients to command a computer to act
merely by thinking about the instructions they wish to send. 

It's a small, early step in a mission to improve the quality of life for
victims of strokes and debilitating diseases like cerebral palsy or Lou
Gehrig's disease. Many victims of such ailments can survive for long periods
thanks to life support, but their quality of life is poor. 

"A computer is a gateway to everything else these patients would like to do,
including motivating their own muscles through electrical stimulation," said
Cyberkinetics chief executive Tim Surgenor. "This is a step in the process."  

The company is far from the only research group active in the field. An
Atlanta company, Neural Signals, has conducted six similar implants as part
of a clinical trial and hopes to conduct more. But for now, its device
contains relatively simple electrodes, and experts say Cyberkinetics will be
the first to engage in a long-term human trial with a more sophisticated
device placed inside a patient's brain. It hopes to bring a product to market
in three to five years. 

A number of research groups have focused on brain-computer links in recent
years. 

In 1998, Neural Signals researchers said a brain implant let a paralyzed
stroke victim move a cursor to point out phrases like "See you later. Nice
talking with you" on a computer screen. The next year, other scientists said
electrodes on the scalp of two Lou Gehrig's disease patients let them spell
messages on a computer screen. 

Cyberkinetics founder Dr. John Donoghue, a Brown University neuroscientist,
attracted attention with research on monkeys that was published in 2002 in
the journal Nature. 

Three rhesus monkeys were given implants, which were first used to record
signals from their motor cortex an area of the brain that controls movement -
as they manipulated a joystick with their hands. Those signals were then used
to develop a program that enabled one of the monkeys to continue moving a
computer cursor with its brain. 

The idea is not to stimulate the mind but rather to map neural activity so as
to discern when the brain is signaling a desire to make a particular physical
movement. 

"We're going to say to a paralyzed patient, 'Imagine moving your hand 6
inches to the right,'" Surgenor said. 

Then, he said, researchers will try to identify the brain activity associated
with that desire. Someday, that capacity could feed into related devices,
such as a robotic arm, that help patients act on that desire. 

It's misleading to say such technologies read minds, said Dr. Jonathan
Wolpaw, of the New York State Department of Health, who is conducting similar
research. Instead, they train minds to recognize a new pattern of cause and
effect, then adapt. 

But Richard Andersen, a California Instititute of Technology expert
conducting similar research, said the field is advanced enough to warrant
this next step. 

"I think there is a consensus among many researchers that the time is right
to begin trials in humans," Andersen said, noting that surgeons are already
implanting devices into human brains sometimes deeply to treat deafness and
Parkinson's disease. "There is always some risk, but one considers the
benefits."  

Wolpaw said it isn't clear that it's necessary to implant such devices inside
the brain. Other technologies that monitor activity from outside the skull
may prove as effective. 

Weblinks:
http://www.cyberkineticsinc.com/
http://www.cyberkineticsinc.com/acute.htm
http://www.neuralsignals.com/
http://www.vis.caltech.edu/
http://www.wadsworth.org/resnres/wolpaw.htm
http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/ArticleID/8210/8210.html

Photograph caption:
A brain sensor is ready to be implanted in the skull of a paralyzed person at
Cvberkinetics Inc. of Foxboro, MA.