1.2 First Telepathic Control

summary

Miguel Nicolelis was the first to record 100 neurons simultaneously.
He went on to develop 3D-printed recording cubes with 10×10×10 filaments, each of which can record two neurons. As of 2016, Professor Nicolelis can record 2,000 neurons at the same time.
Realizing he could measure the electrical sparks of a hundred cells, Nicolelis set out to determine if he could predict motor movement before it happens.
It takes less than a half-second for the brain’s signal to translate the electrical firing into something like the movement of an arm or leg.
Nicolelis and physiologist John Chapin implanted sensors in monkeys to determine how brain circuits encode information.
They created a Brain Machine Interface (BMI) that uses sensors to read electrical signals, extract the embedded motor messages, translate it into digital commands, then send the message to an artificial device.
After implanting these cubes into a rhesus monkey named Aurora, she was able to control a robotic arm within minutes.
This was the first time a primate interacted with the world without using its body.