World Science Scholars
1.2 First Telepathic Control
summary
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.


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