Computers implanted in brain could help paralyzed
From: SFGate - 12/27/2011
By: Erin Allday

The University of California (UC), Berkeley and UC San Francisco launched the
Center for Neural Engineering and Prostheses a year ago to take advantage of
the neurology expertise in San Francisco and the engineering skills in the
Bay Area. The center develops technologies that enable the human brain to
control electronic devices. "Medicine has not taken neural prosthetics very
seriously until recently," says center co-director Edward Chang. The neural
prosthetic devices work by connecting a device inserted into the brain
directly to a computer. The electrical signals from the brain travel through
a cable to the computer, where they are decoded into instructions for some
kind of action, such as moving a cursor. The physical technology is one of
several hurdles the researchers must overcome before the devices are truly
useful. The researchers note that some of the problems are going to require a
greater understanding of how the human brain works. A major part of the
research is determining what devices would actually be useful to patients. "I
want to find out what are the things that are going to be most useful for
people, and it may be as simple as communication," Chang says. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.sfgate.com:80/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/27/MNHU1MDLEU.DTL

Links:
Center for Neural Engineering and Prostheses
http://www.cnep-uc.org/

Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience
http://keck.ucsf.edu/keck/

Philip N. Sabes
http://vision.ucsf.edu/copedav/facsabes.html

Edward F. Chang
http://neurosurgery.ucsf.edu/index.php/about_us_faculty_chang_edward.html

Jose M. Carmena
http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Faculty/Homepages/carmena.html

Submitted by Drew Nelson