From Touchpad to Thought-Pad?
From: National Institutes of Health - 10/27/2010
By: Daniel Stimson 

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently completed a study using
brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) showing that it is possible to manipulate
complex visual images on a computer screen by thought. The researchers found
that when study participants had their brains linked to a computer displaying
two combined images, they could force the computer to display one of the
images and remove the other. "The subjects were able to use their thoughts to
override the images they saw on the computer screen," says University of
California, Los Angeles professor Itzhak Fried. In the study, BCI technology
was used as a tool to understand how the brain processes information, and to
understand how thoughts and decisions are shaped by the collective activity
of single brain cells. "This is a novel and elegant use of a brain-computer
interface to explore how the brain directs attention and makes choices," says
NIH researcher Debra Babcock. "The remarkable aspects of this study are that
we can concentrate our attention to make a choice by modulating so few brain
cells and that we can learn to control those cells very quickly."  

Read the entire article at:
http://www.nih.gov/news/health/oct2010/ninds-27.htm

Links:
Itzhak Fried
http://www.uclahealth.org/body.cfm?xyzpdqabc=0&id=479&action=detail&ref=13990

Research shows that digital images can be manipulated with the mind
http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-10-touchpad-thought-pad-digital-images-mind.html

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/

National Institute of Mental Health
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/

National Institutes of Health
http://www.nih.gov/