Thought-Controlled Arm May Work in People-Report

[DC09]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists who trained a monkey to move a mechanical arm using thought alone said on Tuesday that experiments in Parkinson's disease patients show the technique may work in humans, too.

Electrodes implanted in the brains of Parkinson's disease patients transmitted signals that might someday be used to operate remote devices, the team at Duke University Medical Center reported.

In 2000, Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, the neurobiologist who led the studies, made headlines when he trained a monkey to move a robotic arm using thoughts and electrodes implanted in her brain.

Last October, he refined the experiment, training a monkey to move the arm without even bothering to move her own arm. It showed she consciously knew she was controlling the device with her thoughts.

The hope is to create artificial arms and other prosthetic devices to help severely disabled people.

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