Harnessing Thought to Help the Injured By SHIRLEY WANG and ANTONIO REGALADO Wall Street Journal
July 13, 2006; Page B1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115274937020005165.html?mod=technology_main_promo_left Scientists have long dreamed of harnessing thoughts to allow amputees to move their prosthetic limbs or patients with brain-stem injuries to speak with the aid of a computer. Results released today from a clinical trial of four paralyzed patients suggest the mind-control technology faces complex challenges but appears to be feasible. In the latest in a series of pioneering human tests of direct mind control over electronic devices, a start-up company founded by leading neuroscientists reports in the journal Nature that a patient who had electrodes implanted in his brain used his thoughts to control a computer cursor, send email and operate a robotic arm. Engineers have envisioned using the mind to directly control devices for decades, but technological advances and better understanding of the brain have made actual tests in humans possible only recently. And some hope that new investments by the U.S. military will result in a few years in new devices to help veterans and others with devastating injuries. "The whole field is bubbling up," says Philip Kennedy, chief scientist and CEO of Neural Signals, a closely held Atlanta company doing research in the field. While still at an early stage, excitement over early findings has led to increases in funding and attention. The four-patient trial, including the patient described in Nature, uses what's known as a "neural prosthetic," an implant to record nerve signals inside the brain and use them to control electronic devices. The study was paid for and the brain implant built by Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems Inc., a Foxborough, Mass. company. Researchers caution that it will likely take a decade for brain implants or similar devices to come to market -- a long time for companies in the field to wait for a payoff. "This is a start, showing efficacy in a human, but still far from being a useful device," says Andrew Schwartz, a professor of neurobiology and bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh who has conducted similar research in monkeys. Scientists are pursuing a range of strategies to achieve the goal of direct mind control over machines. Some efforts measure signals inside the brain, others use brain waves that can be recorded outside the skull. Creating a fast, reliable and, above all, natural way for patients to use limbs and senses that they thought were gone is the ultimate goal of the field of brain-computer interfaces, says Leigh Hochberg, a neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital who is the lead author of the Nature article. The study shows that "this part of the brain can still be used to control an external device even years after spinal-cord injury," Dr. Hochberg says. The large number of injured soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan has motivated the government to accelerate prosthetics research. In February, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency kicked off two programs backed by $48.5 million in funding to create artificial limbs, including ones that can be operated by the wearer's thoughts. "We can have a big impact on people's lives. People who have been doing their part on behalf of the country," says Rick Needham, an engineer with Manchester, N.H.-based DEKA Research & Development Corp., which is being funded by Darpa. DEKA, whose president, Dean Kamen, also created the Segway upright scooter, is working on a sophisticated battery-powered prosthetic arm with rotating shoulder, elbow and wrist joints. To effectively operate such sophisticated devices, direct brain control could be useful. Scientists like Dr. Schwartz have shown that by placing electrodes in the brains of monkeys, they can listen in on nerve signals that tell them how an animal intends to move. In one 2000 experiment, for instance, researchers at Duke University used a monkey's thoughts to control a robot hundreds of miles away in Massachusetts. In the Cyberkinetics clinical trial, doctors have surgically implanted nearly 100 electrodes in the brains of four patients. Computer software was used to pick up signals from the patient's brains as they imagined making movements, such as moving their arms. The patient whose experience was described in Nature is Matthew Nagle, who was paralyzed in 2001 when he was 21. He was the first person outfitted with the Cyberkinetics system. He was able to draw simple figures on a computer screen, and even play the videogame Pong, using his thoughts. Mr. Nagle's implant also was connected to a robotic arm, which he used to move an object, and a prosthetic hand, which he opened and closed. Mr. Nagle had the device removed at the end of his one-year trial in order to have an operation to assist his breathing. Since 2004, Cyberkinetics has raised more than $17 million from selling stock and warrants to investors. The company's stock is traded on the OTC Bulletin Board, where stocks of small companies often trade when they can't meet the listing requirements for the larger Nasdaq market. Joseph Pancrazio, program director for neural engineering in the division of extramural research of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Md., says the Nature study "has tremendous implications for the application of brain-machine interfaces with people with disabilities." Given that so much earlier work with implants involved healthy monkeys, their employment in injured humans is "a major milestone." The institute spent $25 million on neural prosthetics in 2005, he says, and funded work that led to the current study. Not all scientists in the field are ready to be impressed yet. "I'm asking myself, what was the advantage that the patient got?" says Miguel Nicolelis, a professor of neurobiology at Duke University. "What has been accomplished could have been accomplished from noninvasive methods?" The New York State Department of Health's Wadsworth Center in Albany, N.Y., has been working on using a less-invasive technology, a brain-wave cap, which fits much like a swim cap, to allow patients to email from their homes, according to Jonathan Wolpaw, who heads the center's laboratory that studies nervous-system disorders. The first patient, a scientist in his late 40s with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, was fitted with a brain-computer-interface system in February and can send emails at the rate of a couple words a minute. A second user, an ALS sufferer in his late 60s, will be fitted with the system this month. The entire system costs less than $5,000. Dr. Wolpaw's research program, whose funding comes from the National Institutes of Health and various private foundations, is looking into establishing a nonprofit company for this technology in the next few months. For a few patients, any connection to the outside world may be of value. Neural Signals is in the process of harnessing brain-computer-interface technology to restore conversational speech in people who have lost the ability to talk. An electrode is implanted into one brain region involved in speech, Broca's area, and a computer tries to translate the patterns into sound. The company has implanted electrodes in five patients since 1996, according Dr. Kennedy, the CEO. Their current patient, a 23-year-old who suffered brain-stem trauma from a stroke following a car accident, received the implant in December 2004. He has limited ability to move just his eyes. After his semiweekly sessions using the system, he is able to make seven sounds or short words, including "yes" and "no." The goal is to give him the ability to speak 100 words, a goal that is reachable within the year, according to Dr. Kennedy. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
