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Module 1.4b

moving red target, the researchers matched the brain signals with the arm movements. Then
they programmed a computer to monitor the signals and operate the joystick. When a mon-
key merely thought about a move, the mind-reading computer moved the cursor with nearly
the same proficiency as had the reward-seeking monkey. Monkey think, computer do.
Clinical trials of such cognitive neural prosthetics have been under way with people who
have severe paralysis or have lost a limb (Andersen et al., 2010; Rajangam et al., 2016).
The first patient, a 25-year-old man with paralysis, was able to mentally control a TV, draw
shapes on a computer screen, and play video games — all thanks to an aspirin-sized chip
with 100 microelectrodes recording activity in his motor cortex (Hochberg et al., 2006).
Other people with paralysis who have received implants have learned to direct robotic arms
with their thoughts (Clausen et al., 2017).
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Not for redistribution.
And then there is Ian Burkhart, who lost the use of
his arms and legs at age 19. Ohio State University brain
researchers implanted recording electrodes in his motor
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
cortex (Schwemmer et al., 2018). Imagine the process:
Researchers instruct Burkhart to stare at a screen that
shows a moving hand. Next, Burkhart imagines moving
his own hand. Brain signals from his motor cortex feed
into a computer, which gets the message that he wants
to move his arm and thus stimulates those muscles.
The result? Burkhart, with his very own paralyzed arm,
grasps a bottle, dumps out its contents, and picks up a
stick. He can even play the video game Guitar Hero. By
learning Burkhart’s unique brain response patterns, the
computer can predict his brain activity to help him make Andrew Spear/Redux Pictures
these movements. “It’s really restored a lot of the hope I
have for the future to know that a device like this will be
possible to use in everyday life,” Burkhart says, “for me
and for many other people” (Wood, 2018). (See tinyurl
.com/ControlMotorCortex.)
If everything psychological is also biological — if, for example, every thought is also a
neural event — could microelectrodes someday detect thoughts well enough to enable people
to control their environment with ever-greater precision (see Figure 1.4-14)? Scientists have
even created a prosthetic voice, which creates (mostly) understandable speech by reading the
brain’s motor commands that direct vocal movement (Anumanchipalli et al., 2019).

Figure 1.4-14
Brain–machine interaction
Electrodes planted in the hand
area of the motor cortex, and in
the hand, elbow, and shoulder
muscles, helped a man with
paralysis in all four limbs use his
paralyzed arm to take a drink of
coffee (Ajiboye et al., 2017). Such
research advances are paving
the way for restored movement
in daily life, outside the controlled
laboratory environment (Andersen,
2019; Andersen et al., 2010).

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