a friend of a friend is working on this stuff –
pretty incredible –
Here is the article
Here is a brief excerpt:
Hundreds of thousands of people suffer from forms of motor impairment in which intact movement-related areas of the brain cannot generate movements because of damage to the spinal cord, nerves, or muscles1. Paralysing disorders profoundly limit independence, mobility and communication. Current assistive technologies rely on devices for which an extant function provides a signal that substitutes for missing actions. For example, cameras can monitor eye movements that can be used to point a computer cursor2. Although these surrogate devices have been available for some time, they are typically limited in utility, cumbersome to maintain, and disruptive of natural actions. For instance, gaze towards objects of interest disrupts eye-based control. By contrast, an NMP is a type of brain–computer interface (BCI) that can guide movement by harnessing the existing neural substrate for that action—that is, neuronal activity patterns in motor areas. An ideal NMP would provide a safe, unobtrusive and reliable signal from the disconnected motor area that could restore lost function. Neurons in the primary motor cortex (MI) arm area of monkeys, for example, provide information about intended arm reaching trajectories3,4,5, but this command signal would work for an NMP only if neural signals persist and could be engaged by intention in paralysed humans.
Notes for me : primary motor cortex – well documented – motor control
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