FDA Approves Human Brain Implant Devices

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040413/ap_on_bi_ge/brain_implants_2

FDA Approves Human Brain Implant Devices

Tue Apr 13, 6:34 PM ET

By JUSTIN POPE, AP Business Writer

BOSTON - For years, futurists have dreamed of machines that can read minds, then act on instructions as they are thought. Now, human trials are set to begin on a brain-computer interface involving implants.

Cyberkinetics Inc. of Foxboro, Mass., has received Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) approval to begin a clinical trial in which four-square-millimeter chips will be placed beneath the skulls of paralyzed patients.

If successful, the chips could allow patients to command a computer to act — merely by thinking about the instructions they wish to send.

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Cyberkinetics founder Dr. John Donoghue, a Brown University neuroscientist, attracted attention with research on monkeys that was published in 2002 in the journal Nature.

Three rhesus monkeys were given implants, which were first used to record signals from their motor cortex — an area of the brain that controls movement — as they manipulated a joystick with their hands. Those signals were then used to develop a program that enabled one of the monkeys to continue moving a computer cursor with its brain.

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I can't wait to be a part of the collective.

that could certainly use a brain transplant.

Wouldn't work. Bush doesn't meet the minimum hardware requirements i.e. a brain

I think this is a great advancement for anyone living with a debilitating disease or injury just as spinal cord injury. Controlling a computer with your mind is one step towards greater independence for many people.

This could really help people with brain damage, too, who can't verbally communicate.

And, yes, it'll probably help spinal cord victims too...at least the rich ones with good insurance.

They did a show on stem cells and paralysis, heart disease, and cancer. They're getting pretty advanced with the research. I think if we would just allow embryonic cells to be used, it would really solve the almost anything. Anyway, it was really inspiring and amazing what they've managaed to do already using adult stem cells.