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Scientists recently used treadmill exercise, drugs, and electrical stimulation to train paralyzed rats to walk once again, demonstrating a way to possibly treat spinal injuries in humans, which at present are basically untreatable.

In a spinal injury, the neural circuits connecting the brain to the muscles that control walking become damaged or severed, leaving an individual paralyzed. In able-bodied people, these “walking circuits” spring into action when they receive a signal from the brain, but if the spinal cord is damaged, the message from the brain never arrives. When contact with the brain is lost, the circuits shut down [The Guardian]. In the study, published in Nature Neuroscience, researchers manipulated these circuits and produced movement that was “almost indistinguishable” from normal walking. See for yourself in the embedded video.

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When Adam Wilson wants to update his Twitter feed, he doesn’t have to tap out a single keystroke–brainwaves are all he needs. On April 1st, he used a brain-to-Twitter communication system to transmit this message: “USING EEG TO SEND TWEET.” That message may be a modern equivalent of Alexander Graham Bell’s “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you.” Brain-computer interfaces are no longer just a gee-whiz technology, but a platform for researchers interested in immediate real-world applications for people who can think, but can’t move [Wired].

The system uses electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the electrical activity in the user’s brain. Explains University of Wisconsin professor Justin Williams: “All the letters come up, and each one of them flashes individually…. And what your brain does is, if you’re looking at the ‘R’ on the screen and all the other letters are flashing, nothing happens. But when the ‘R’ flashes, your brain says, ‘Hey, wait a minute. Something’s different about what I was just paying attention to.’ And you see a momentary change in brain activity” [MSNBC]. After the message has been painstakingly assembled, letter by letter, the user sends it by focusing on the “Twit” box on the screen. When that flashes and the EEG reader picks up the brain signal, the message is sent to Twitter.

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Yesterday, Honda Research Institute revealed the latest trick from its Asimo robot: It can now respond to commands issued only as thoughts. The Japanese carmaker ran a video of a man imagining four simple movements – raising his right hand, raising his left hand, running and eating – that were then duplicated by Asimo, the company’s humanoid robot. Honda said the technology was not ready for a live demonstration because the test subject might get distracted. A previous demonstration in 2006 required the test subjects to lie motionless in an MRI scanner in order to pick up the signals [Financial Times].

The mind-reading system is non-invasive, meaning that the controller doesn’t have electrodes implanted in his head. Researchers used a specialized helmet instead, which is the first “brain-machine interface” to combine two different techniques for picking up activity in the brain. Sensors in the helmet detect electrical signals through the scalp in the same way as a standard EEG (electroencephalogram). The scientists combined this with another technique called near-infrared spectroscopy, which can be used to monitor changes in blood flow in the brain [The Guardian]. A software program then integrates the two signals and transmits a command to the robot.

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Deep brain stimulation can now be used to treat obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, which causes uncontrollable worries and anxiety in its sufferers. Medtronic’s Reclaim deep-brain stimulation (DBS) device received approval from the Food and Drug Administration after a study of 26 patients with severe OCD that showed a 40 percent reduction in symptoms after a year of deep brain stimulation therapy. All the patients had tried and failed other therapies [Chicago Tribune].

The Reclaim device is implanted under the skin of the chest and then connected to four electrodes in the brain. The electrodes deliver steady pulses of electricity that block abnormal brain signals [AP]; the device is controlled by a battery-run component outside the body. Hooman Azmi, a neurosurgeon at Hackensack University Medical Center, said, “This is essentially like a pacemaker for the brain” [WebMD Health News].

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In a new experiment, researchers didn’t have to ask their test subjects whether they’d prefer coffee or tea; instead, they just read their minds. With a nifty bit of technical wizardry, researchers beamed near-infrared light at the volunteers’ foreheads while asking them to mentally decide which of two beverages they liked better. By examining how the light was absorbed by the volunteers’ brain tissue, researchers were able to predict a person’s preference with 80 percent accuracy.

Lead researcher Tom Chau says he hopes a similar device can one day help people with severe cerebral palsy or neuromuscular conditions that keep them paralyzed in unresponsive bodies. “Basically their mind is alert,” he said. “This is kind of the compelling argument behind the work, that these individuals are cognitively capable – they’re aware of their surroundings, they understand what’s going on – but they have no means of communicating their intentions or preferences to the outside world” [Canadian Press].

Coauthor Sheena Luu adds that the device could use simple preferences to build up to larger decisions and thoughts. “If we limit the context – limit the question and available answers, as we have with predicting preference – then mind-reading becomes possible” [The Register], she says.

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IBM has won a $4.9 million government grant from DARPA to begin the first phase of research on “cognitive computing”– essentially building computers that work like living brains. The new brain-like computers will aim to process vast amounts of data to solve problems without relying on specific programmed algorithms. Mark Dean, Vice President of IBM said, “The challenge is that computers today are very good at computing, but what we really need is a more efficient way of sifting through information” [International Herald Tribune].

The inside of computers already have the look of neural networks, a static road map of electronic circuits. But the brain actually works by constantly creating, breaking, and tweaking the synaptic connections between neurons. Although today’s computers may excel at complex challenges with clear rules, like chess, they fail at simple tasks that require strategy, sensation, perception, and learning, like finding misplaced keys. IBM will partner with five universities to develop new nano-scale circuitry that has the ability to shift depending on the signals that pass through them. Free from the constraints of explicitly programmed function, computers could gather together disparate information, weigh it based on experience, form memory independently and arguably begin to solve problems in a way that has so far been the preserve of what we call “thinking” [BBC].

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In a new study, researchers attached electrodes to individual neurons in monkeys’ brains and then rerouted those neuronal signals through a brain-machine interface, which converted them into electrical signals that controlled the monkeys’ own paralyzed muscles. Researchers say this roundabout feat of bioengineering could eventually lead to new treatments and prosthetics for paralyzed people.

The implant exploits the fact that even when the neural connection between a brain region and the muscles it controls is severed or damaged by, say, a stroke or spinal injury, the controlling neurons remain active. For example, people living with quadriplegia who try to move their arm still generate arm-movement signals in the motor cortex of their brain, even after several years of paralysis [New Scientist]. The new study is the first to send the signals back to the user’s own muscles, as opposed to related research in which the signals are fed into electronic devices.

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At the Tokyo Game Show today, a video game player strapped on a headset and, without touching a conventional video game controller, began to kill zombies–using only the power of his mind. Called “Judecca,” the PC game is a zombie-killing first-person-shooter, though it’s really just a proof of concept and not something that’s going to be available to consumers anytime soon [Fox News].

The game was produced by leading Japanese studio Square Enix and makes use of a brainwave-sensing headset from NeuroSky, a San Jose-based company that develops biometric sensors and similar products aimed at the consumer market [PC World]. NeuroSky’s “Mindset” device looks like a big pair of headphones with a single electrode that wraps around to tap the wearer’s forehead; the company says the device uses electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the current state of relaxation or concentration of players.

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Researchers have built a “biological brain” for a robot using a dish full of rat neurons, and have harnessed the neurons’ electric signals to navigate the robot around a pen. Researchers say the experiment should add to their understanding of how brain cells function, and could provide insight into what goes wrong in neurons affected by diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

The robot’s controller nestles inside a small pot containing a pink broth of nutrients and antibiotics. Inside that pot, some 300,000 rat neurons have made – and continue to make – connections with each other. As they do so, the disembodied neurons are communicating, sending electrical signals to one another just as they do in a living creature [New Scientist]. The neurons’ automatic drive to connect and communicate may be an indication of how sturdy brain cells are; researcher Steve Potter, who has been involved in similar experiments, says that brain cells have “evolved to reconnect under almost any circumstance that doesn’t kill them” [Telegraph].

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This can only lead to a summer blockbuster. Researchers implanted tiny electrodes in two monkeys’ brains, allowing them to move robotic arms with their thoughts.

To motivate the monkeys to perform, they were encouraged to feed themselves marshmallows and pieces of fruit with the robotic arms, which had joints and “grippers” that roughly replicated fingers. According to the research team’s report in Nature [subscription required], the arms’ movements were fluid and natural, and the monkeys continuously adjusted the speed and direction of their robotic limbs.

While the technology isn’t yet ready for human testing, scientists are hopeful that it can eventually be applied to prosthetic limbs for people with spinal cord injuries, strokes, and other paralyzing conditions.

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