E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSThis video provides an introduction to the infrared-sensing rat experiment. Check the Web page at http://www.nicolelislab.net/?p=345 for the full series of videos, as well as background about the experiment,
BOSTON — Neuroscientists are following through on the promise of artificially enhanced bodies by creating the ability to "feel" flashes of light in invisible wavelengths, or building an entire virtual body that can be controlled via brain waves.
"Things that we used to think were hoaxes or science fiction are fast becoming reality," said Todd Coleman, a bioengineering professor at the University of California at San Diego. Coleman and other researchers surveyed the rapidly developing field of neuroprosthetics in Boston this weekend at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
One advance came to light just in the past week, when researchers reported that they successfully wired up rats to sense infrared light and move toward the signals to get a reward. "This was the first attempt … not to restore a function but to augment the range of sensory experience," said Duke University neurobiologist Miguel Nicolelis, the research team's leader.
The project, detailed in the journal Nature Communications, involved training rats to recognize a visible light source and poke at the source with its nose to get a sip of water. Then electrodes were implanted in a region of the rats' brains that is associated with whisker-touching. The electrodes were connected to an infrared sensor on the rats' heads, which stimulated the target neurons when the rat was facing the source of an infrared beam. Then the visible lights in the test cage were replaced by infrared lights.
It typically took about four weeks of practice for the rats to figure out how to use their new infrared sensory system, but eventually the rats could respond to the invisible light as well as they responded to the visible light. Presumably, they could "feel" where the infrared flash was coming from, as part of their whisker-touching sense.
Nicolelis said the experiment showed that the brain is "much more plastic than we thought" when it comes to adapting to new stimuli.
That plasticity is the key to another set of experiments he and his colleagues have been conducting with rhesus monkeys, in which the monkeys learn to use their brain waves to control robotic arms or manipulate virtual objects on a computer screen. Over the years, Nicolelis' research team has developed a brain-cap system for monkeys that can pick up neural signals in almost 2,000 channels simultaneously, and send them wirelessly to a computer for processing. Nicolelis indicated that he was closing in on the goal of creating a system that could control a full-body exoskeleton.
"We can get animals to control the whole body now, when you get to the 1,000-neuron margin," he said.
Such work feeds into the Walk Again Project, a multinational effort to develop next-generation, full-body prosthetics for people with disabilities. Nicolelis wants to have an experimental brain-controlled exoskeleton ready in time to make its debut at next year's World Cup soccer finals, which are to be hosted by Brazil, Nicolelis' native country.
"We hope we will open the World Cup with a paraplegic young adult walking onto the field," he said.
Coleman, meanwhile, is working on ways to make brain-control devices less obtrusive. He is among several researchers who have been developing stamp-sized wireless sensors that can be worn like temporary tattoos. Such sensors can be used to monitor a person's medical signs — but if they're worn on the head, it's possible to pick up brain waves. In fact, Coleman found that the wireless tattoo sensors worked as well as the conventional, wired stick-on electrodes.
Todd Coleman, a bioengineering professor at the University of California at San Diego, demonstrates how his "wireless tattoos" make monitoring bodily functions much easier.
The results suggest that someday, it might be possible to develop a computer program to read the brain-wave patterns sent in by a tattoo on your forehead, and then fine-tune a virtual character to respond as if it was reading your thoughts.
The tattoos could have more down-to-earth applications in the medical field: In the future, such sensors could be used to monitor a newborn's brain for any signs of abnormality, or an older person's brain for signs of cognitive impairment.
"As we age, our ability to respond, or to modulate our attention to different new types of inputs, will start to slow down," Coleman said in a video interview distributed by AAAS. "Imagine if we could ... mount a sticker to the forehead that can provide quantitative outputs — measurements of that."
Does all this sound like a dream come true for the disabled, or a nightmare for folks worried about mind-reading robots? Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts in the comment section below.
More about the brain:
- Machine that feels is key to 'Jedi' prosthetics
- How scientists hacked into Stephen Hawking's brain
- Flash interactive: Road map of the mind
- Cosmic Log archive on brain science
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
can't wait to see the first Borg model.
I remember in a Superman episode where Lex Luthor got the same power as Superman. At the end, he then comments "So this is the world he sees, it is so unbelievable, I can't believe such a word exist".
This is due to the fact that Lex Luthor is able to see different wave length that is not visible to human. A world where there are radio wave, infrared and all kind of waves.
"resistance is futile"
We could be disappointed when we learn the the brain waves from powerful groups like the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are without brain activity. Who's in control?
disappointed how?? we already know they are brain dead--->;-)
What does that say about the voters who put them there? The only government office the voter can not take blame for is the executive, that position is not is not popular vote.
"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter" Winston Churchill
Fascinating article! I was a guinea pig for the original Diabetic Retinopathy Study at the Joslin Clinic in the '70s, when they first tried lasers to reverse retinopathy. Unfortunately, they turned my retinas into charcoal briquettes. For 38 years, I have been looking for practical artificial vision. I wonder if this process could be reversed to take signals from an external camera and create brain waves to let me once again see! Always hoping!!
Were you not legally compensated?
KAREN..........Were your eyes completely Cooked?.....any of them in Tact?......If there is any thing left?..........Try putting on your eyes .....SWEDISH BITTERS..........it is all natural and in Liquid form......You dilute to half strength and brush on closed Eyelids at bedtime.........It worked for my eyes ........Good luck....... And Question how do you see to Write on this post???
Can you say unethical and without forethought ? The problem with this isn't the potential to do good but that the potential to do bad is so much worse I don't even know where to begin. Do they have any concept of the long term consequences of creating artificial fences in people's minds, especially since it's not the individual's idea of their own mind but someone else's, healthy or not ? Someone please tell me that these doctors can't be so incredibly insane that they can't see the long term danger of this.
Can you say short-sighted on your part? Everything has its good and bad, just by judging it now is totally stupid.
We don't know what it will open up, but at least there will be something that will further our knowledge. If you just afraid of everything, then we couldn't even be able to use electricity in the first place since it's a "domain of GOD".
If God (should such a supreme being somehow exist without having been created by an even more supreme being) had wanted man to:
-- Wear clothes, man would be born with them on.
-- Wear clothes, man would have been born with the free will, judgment, and intelligence to create and wear them. By golly, man was born that way.
-- Fly, man would have been born with wings.
-- Be disease and defect free, man would have been born disease and defect free.
-- Etc.
(c) 2013
No, Luci, none of the highly trained scientists that have devoted their entire lives to these issues ever thought of those concerns. If only they would listen to the wisdom of completely untrained laymen like yourself...
Or perhaps it's just that they understand the brain a little better than you do. LEARN first, then criticize.
Anyone who thinks that just because someone is a scientist, it somehow follows that they could only have the best intentions for anyone - is naive.
All swords are double-edged.
Who foresaw that smartphones with cameras and filesharing in the hands of young people would lead to 'sexting?'
But will you have everyone give up their cellphone for that?
Meanwhile, Google: Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
Not that they're the only organization that explores this, but they're the first one that comes to my mind.
WOW. A Frankenstein without all of the parts stitched together. Isn't science wonderful. The dog across the street, that pops on my lawn, needs to be re-programed to do it at home.
I've always wanted to be able to see in radio waves. Imagine those beacons on the top of the mountains, glowing in the colors of their frequencies, penetrating through walls like they were glass. The things that look opaque would be the things that radio waves can't penetrate, everything else would be gauzy and ghostlike.
hacks working away, so far great job, but someone somewhere better start setting up the ethics rules, don't need em now, and when we do, it'll be way too late, again.
tattoo on forehead seems like mark of beast mmmm as technology grows deeper so does our dimise
In 100 years, getting "Augments" will be all the rage. You think sports is rife with Steroid use, just wait. Being pure human will be considered a disadvantage, that only the poor suffer. The sky is the limit. Bionic Man +10.
The age of the superhuman is almost upon us. Super heroes and super villains too.
I think the human brain may already be wired for intervension. Has anyone here ever heard of the phenomenon of phantom limbs? It is the sensory hallucination of a limb that has been lost or amputated. Granted, the perception that the missing limb is still present and working in accord to sentient commands stems from familiarity with that limb, perhaps with the right stimulation to the brain, the reverse can be itaught to someone who has not yet known the workings of their own limbs or someone who has lost a limb but has not conjured the hallucination. There is no shortage in the physical world for validation of the mechanics of physical movement via other human beings.
No one will be able to buy or sell unless they have the "mark" of the beast.......the beast being the one who restores the global economy.
You need to understand that line before you quote it.
your ssn is already a mark of the beast, try to earn a living without it
lol, illegals do it every day.
We're at the Cusp of a New Dimension!
I would like to smell colour, taste thought, and think in sensoround! Think of all the possibilities!
Trippin without the acid eh.
Hmmmm. Maybe this is how the zombie apocolyse starts??? Mind control over brain dead bodies by a master computer installed with our favorite movies and video games.
I feel badly for the innocent animals that have endure the pain to find out how our brains work although we already know but imagine how the government might use this later to find out things that are NONE of their business.
I think this kind of knowledge is great, if your mind is in the right direction, think of the many people that are on disability that really don't want to be, they want to be working non-dependent people to society.
will it fix the hole in the ozone layer? or control global warming? if not, what's the point and who cares?
the "point" is being able to fix some of the limitations of those less fortunate than us that have use of all our limbs and senses. u know give a kid who was born without use of his legs, the ability to walk? or a vet who lost his sight due to an IED be able to "see" ? or maybe a paralyzed mother the ability to hold her child for the 1st time? or quite possibly help to find your sense of humanity?
-->"In the future, such sensors could be used to monitor a newborn's brain for any signs of abnormality, or an older person's brain for signs of cognitive impairment."
Surely, the first application will be to discover autism or other brain disorders in the unborn, thus enabling another "acceptable reason" for abortion.
Parents with autistic children love them very much, and would never choose to go back and do it differently. But now with a choice, I fear it will be used to expand "pre-birth screenings" to cover neurological disorders. The bad part about this is, most mildly autistic children grow up to be very productive and happy individuals and parents.
The discovery will also usher in the thought police. Not in 10 years, or even 50 years. But in 100 years time, crime will be fought before crimes happen. By monitoring annual brain screenings for high risk individuals, and then ramping up the surveylence on those individuals.
Great science, but the evil minds of men in power will use it to maintain control. Mark my words.
to the extreme, my son isnt going to be the 6' 8 basketball player i want so ill abort him, in china they already abort if first born is not a male
Interesting. Makes one wonder if one day all of us will live in a virtual world. Once we pass our physical peak,say around retirement age,put us on a computer chip and use the body for it's base elements. Craziest comment on this post,but I bet someday it happens.
Can you say Surrogates, not to mention complete mind control:) We will eventually replace our humanity with machines.
The movie 'Surrogates' and just about every future nightmare scenario of of any science fiction writer. come to mind. All of this has the potential to be useful. For the disabled. Possibly the military, it could probably possibly end deaths on the battlefield. When you market this to everyone else, what then? For what purpose? The concept of living vicariously through robot's wouldn't have any benefits for able bodied people.
Iron Man suits would be more accurately responsive than using pressure sensors.
Sounds very exciting!
Like any technology, the outcome could vastly improve the human species or we could all become robots to the will of a malevolent few.
The possible up-side: If we could only identify the mass murderers, rapists, and those bent on destruction of life on this planet. Could they all be re-programmed? Could we recognize the evil that lurks within and turn that around? Then all the ethics questions come into play. How do we define good and evil? How far do we go with this technology? Who is controlling it all? Who decides?
Hang on for an amazing, unknown future...
This is stupid just like all there idea's reminds me of the scientist who got a RDIF Chip put in there body and got a computer virus what human gets a computer virus, my point is everything has a side affect and to this world where all there puppets that they play with to see what more and more they can do to us. Some science is for the good of us and some is just a waste of money and a evanding of a person's private life everything they done will fail and so will this eventually. I mean what about releasing that cancer cure to those who are sick what about the real issues in society no they don't care they would rather have us dead then help us its there population control and who is getting this device I know I am not I'm not there Lab rat. And this my friends is where we become control by the government I would rather starve and praise my God happily doing it!! Just an opinion
"there" - a location
"their" - a possessive
"they're" - a contraction of 'they are', a conditional
spellcheck is free, but proper grammar shows real intelligence. Epic fail on your part.