Monkey THINK.. Monkey Do...

Researchers have planted an implant in a monkey's brain, which allows them to control their arm actions just by THINKING about it.

In the video from Nature.com, a monkey is able to move his robotic arm to grab a marshmallow from a pin at different locations.

Andrew Schwartz led the team by first having the monkeys use a joystick to move the arm, but then placed their arm into a robotic arm, which is then controlled by brain cells.


According to the article at Nature.com, tiny electrodes were implanted into the motor cortex of the brain, which is the part controlling movement. The electrodes read the commands to move from the brain cells and then converts them into actual movement in the robotic arm.

Schwartz and his other team of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh say that in the future it is possible for this technique to be applied to humans to have the ability to generate movement in their prosthetic limbs.

Researchers have shown that humans have the ability to control computer cursors using only brain signals, which shows that " the brain is capable of creating a stable, mental representation of a disembodied device so that it can be controlled with little effort," according to this sciencedaily.com news article.

A human example is Matthew Nagle, who was left paralyzed from the neck down, and was the first person to have the chip planted in his brain, which now allows his thoughts and commands to be sent to a computer.

Now Nagle can turn on the TV, move a computer cursor, and alter volume, among other things.

Imagine what this means for the future and those who have lost limbs or are confined to a wheelchair due to paralysis.

I think it's something beautiful. Restoring life to something that was lost.