login
Become a member
Quick Registration
Full Registration Benefits -
Free Homepages for Doctors
Free Homepages for Hospitals
Free Homepages for Medical Conference
Free Homepages for NGO's
Personal Health Record Creation
Access to all Medical Slides
Access to all Jobs & Products Sale
Paralyzed Monkeys Able to Move Arms Via Artificial Brain-muscle Connections
Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the study may have promising implications for those affected by spinal cord injuries and thousands of others with paralyzing neurological diseases.
"This study demonstrates a novel approach to restoring movement through neuroprosthetic devices, one that would link a person's brain to the activation of individual muscles in a paralyzed limb to produce natural control and movements," Nature magazine quoted Dr. Joseph Pancrazio, a program director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), as saying.
For their study, the researchers trained monkeys to control the activity of single nerve cells in the motor cortex, an area of the brain that controls voluntary movements.
The team used a type of brain-computer interface to detect neuronal activity. They connected electrodes implanted in the motor cortex were connected via external circuitry to a computer.
The neural activity led to movements of a cursor, as monkeys played a target practice game.
Once the monkeys had mastered control of the cursor, their wrist muscles were temporarily paralyzed using a local anesthetic to block nerve conduction.
The team then converted the activity in the monkey's brain to electrical stimulation delivered to the paralyzed wrist muscles.
The monkeys continued to play the target practice game, demonstrating that they had regained the ability to control the otherwise paralyzed wrist.
|
|
|
 Comment & Contribute
|
|
guest
10/17/2008
This is great news and brings with it lots of hope for quadriplegics and paraplegics.Congratulations !!! I just wish this has happened much earlier so that my dad would not have died a quadriplegic last year.
Reply |
Forward
|
Medwonders Health Network
- Health News Index
 | Quiz on Brain Feeling bad, sad, silly or glad? Find out what is responsible by taking part in our brain quiz. 
|
- News Quick Links
| News Categories: |
| » | Schizophrenia Drug Differentiates Cancer Stem Cells into Less Threatening Cells |
| » | Docs Who Seldom Meet Drug Reps Continue to Prescribe Drugs With FDA “Black Box” Warnings |
| » | Revision in Quality Standards for Heparin |
| » | Acne Drug Users At High Risk of Developing Eye Infections |
| » | Patients Who Take Antidepressants When in ICU More Likely to Die |
| More Drug News | |
|
