Movement through the Power of the Mind
From: Medill Reports (IL) - 05/19/2011
By: Bethany Hubbard 

Several US universities are conducting research in motor memory and
brain-machine interfaces. For example, Brown University's BrainGate2 research
team, which includes neuroscientists, engineers, and computer scientists, is
developing technologies to restore the communication, mobility, and
independence of people with neurologic problems. University of Chicago
researcher Nicholas Hatsopoulos uses brain-machine interfaces to study how
the body moves, and his research has shown that it is likely that motor
memory is stored throughout the brain, instead of in one specific place.
Hatsopoulos says a greater understanding of how motor memory works could give
paraplegics a better quality of life. University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign professor Tim Bretl, as a member of the Brain-Machine
Interface Group, uses electroencardiogram technology to enable people to fly
small fixed-wing unmanned aircrafts. Meanwhile, the University of
Wisconsin-Madison's Neural Interface Technology Research and Optimization Lab
is using brain-machine interfaces to enhance social media. 

Read the entire article at:
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=186456

Links:
Hatsopoulos Lab
http://pondside.uchicago.edu/oba/faculty/Hatsopoulos/lab/research.html

NITRO Lab
http://nitrolab.engr.wisc.edu/

Restoring mobility after spinal cord injuries (with video)
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=183487

BrainGate
http://www.braingate2.org/braingateSystem.asp

Tim Bretl
http://www.ae.illinois.edu/~tbretl/
http://www.ae.illinois.edu/people/faculty/bretl.html
http://www.beckman.illinois.edu/directory/tbretl