A microchip with 1,500 light sensors sits beneath the retina and stimulates neurons which project to the brain's visual cortex.

The blind really are beginning to see again. After receiving retinal implants in a trial, two people in the UK and one in China – all blind – regained part of their vision. And more good news could be on the way as results from other participants comes to light. But the chip is a bright ray of hope for the estimated 1.5 million worldwide that have retinitis pigmentosa, if not for the 285 million visually impaired.

All of the trial participants were made blind by retinitis pigmentosa in which the light-sensitive rods and cones of the retina deteriorate. British participants Robin Millar and Chris James, whose retinas had not responded to light in over a decade, were able to see immediately after the chip was turned on. Seeing the first flashes of light, James told the BBC, was a “magic moment.” Before receiving the implant neither participant was capable of detecting any light at all. The chip now allows James to distinguish between curves and straight lines. And Millar’s magic moment came when he began detecting light coming in through the windows. Professor Robert MacLaren, of Oxford Eye Hospital who co-led the study with Tim Jackson of King’s College Hospital, said the regained vision was a first for a completely blind Brit.

China scores its own first with Tsang Wu Suet Yun. Like James and Millar, Mrs. Tsang had lost her sight to retinitis pigmetnosa. She had been legally blind for 15 years, barely able to detect light. After receiving the same implant as James and Millar, she was able to read letters projected onto a screen.

The following is 2010 footage of a Finnish man who had regained partial vision after receiving an implant from Retina.

The implants act as a replacement for the lost retinal cells by detecting light and then stimulating neurons which send the signal to the brain. Developed by the world leader in retinal implants, Retina Implant Ag, the devices are tiny microchips 5 mm on each side and a tenth of a mm thick, which are implanted just below the retina. The chip’s surface is covered by a microphotodiode array containing 1,500 light-sensitive units. The light intensity of each point is translated into electrical impulses used to stimulate the underlying neurons. The chip is powered by a wireless power unit connected via a cable that runs over the ear and then under the skin to reach the eye. Settings on the power unit can be adjusted to modify the light sensitivity of the array and maximize its effectiveness for individual patients.

The brain needs a period of time to learn how to interpret the "unnatural" signals sent from the chip.

The implant has been involved in retinal trials for six years now, and the current encouraging results could be just the beginning. Results from the first two trials were published in 2010 and prompted the expansion of the trial to sites outside of Germany, including the UK and China.

Being able to distinguish between straight and curved lines or detecting light through a window may not sound like much but, as Prof. MacLaren points out, just being able to enter a room and know where the doors and tables would be is incredibly useful to a blind person. The vibrant colors of the world, however, will remain hidden for the moment. As the implants only convey light contrast they only see in black-and-white. But one unexpected development that’s as much a benefit to Millar as it is a neuroscience curiosity, he’s dreaming in color for the first time in 25 years.

It’s hard to tell without a direct comparison, but Retina’s chip has the potential to out-see the Argus II implant that is already commercially available and helping the blind to see. The Argus II chip doesn’t receive light directly, but relays signals from a glasses-mounted camera. And the chip only has about 60 electrodes with which to stimulate optic nerves and transmit the signal to the brain. Retina’s 1,500 adjustable, light sensing/nerve stimulating units could potentially work so much better.

To reiterate, the current results are part of a clinical trial and the chip is not yet available as a treatment. Replacing dead or non-functional cells with new ones through stem cell therapies would be the ideal treatment. While these therapies have shown great promise recently, there’s no telling just when they’ll deliver on restoring full vision to the blind, if ever. But the results from the current trial are just getting underway. Hopefully it will be more of the same.

[image credits: Retina Implant Ag and Proceedings of The Royal Society]
[video credit: Channel 4 News via YouTube]
images: Retina Implant Ag, Royal Society
video: Retinal Implant Ag

DARPA's Robotic Challenge, where robots will perform tasks at a simulated catastrophe site, is sure to attract humanoid robots like Petman.

Five years after the DARPA Grand Challenge robotic cars are already hitting the roads and states are preparing for their eventual arrival. Now DARPA is launching a new Robotics Challenge that will test the most advanced robotics solutions in a simulated disaster obstacle course. The challenge – and the cash prize – will almost certainly prove a major catalyst for the near future of robotics technologies.

In the event of a natural or man-made disaster, it’s always better to put robots in harm’s way instead of humans. With this in mind, the Robotics Challenge is a wide open, task-driven test. Instead of specifying specific technologies, DARPA is saying get to the finish line anyway you can.

What DARPA wants to see is a robot that has human-like “mobility and manipulation” abilities. At a disaster scene robots will have to make use of the same machinery and tools that human rescue teams have to use. The different stages of the challenge are meant to simulate an emergency response to a natural or manmade disaster. The robot will enter an open-frame vehicle like a John Deere Gator or Polaris Ranger, turn it on, and drive it – steering, throttle, brakes and all – to the disaster scene. Once it’s pulled up to the pile of rubble, it will exit the vehicle and climb over the sloped terrain littered with loose rocks, trees, ditches, and other obstacles it has to negotiate or avoid. Eventually the robot will reach an entryway blocked with debris that it will have to remove. Once the debris is cleared, it has to operate a door handle and push the door open. Inside, it will have to climb a ladder to reach a catwalk. After crossing the catwalk it will reach a concrete panel or a framed wall that it has to bust through using something like an electric hammer or chisel. Waiting for it on the other side of the panel will be a series of pipes, only one of which will be leaking. The robot has to spot the smoke or hear the hissing sound to locate the faulty pipe and then close the pipe’s turn valve. Lastly, the rescue robot’s day will end after locating and replacing a cooling pump.

They somehow forgot to include pulling small children from a burning building.

DARPA hasn’t yet decided by what criteria exactly the robots will be judged except that the robots get points for operating autonomously and using less energy.

Robots like iRobot's Packbot have already lent a helping hand to emergency response crews, but DARPA wants a robot that can do just about everything a human could do.

If you’re a big fan of humanoid robots like Petman, you may be biased towards imagining a band of Superman-like – or Terminator-like – robots coming to the rescue. But DARPA emphasizes that the winning robot will get the job done, humanoid or not. They want to make it clear that a team should go ahead if they think an arachnoid robot would do the job better than a spiderman robot.

The team that builds the winning robot pockets $2 million.

The robots won’t be required to be completely autonomous but will operate with “supervised autonomy.” Under supervised autonomy, the controller gives general commands without having to carry out basic functions of perception and action.

I expect that Boston Dynamics will be one of the competing teams. But it will be interesting to see which direction they go in. Will they go straight humanoid and try to develop Petman, or will Alpha Dog be the more sensible choice? Maybe we’ll see something entirely new.

DARPA realizes that the challenge is really, really tough, calling it “DARPA hard” but not impossible. For them it’s a longterm commitment. The competition will be held once a year, at the endpoint of two separate phases. Phase 1 will last 15 months, beginning October 1, 2012 to December 31, 2013. There’s no cash prize for the Phase 1 winners. But they qualify to move onto the second phase, which will last 12 moths from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014. Any company or research team, anywhere in the world, can compete.

Needless to say, the humanoid robot envisioned by DARPA will require some seriously advanced technologies, and lots of them. To maximize their chances for success, the program is broken up into different tracks so that entrants can tackle a problem that is suited to their strength. Track A is for teams developing both hardware and software, while Track B is for software developers only. Any proposal that is chosen for Tracks A and B will be funded – $3 million for Track A, $375,000 for Track B. Tracks C and D will compete in the same categories, except they’ll have to build their robot and software at their own expense.

DARPA will build its own robot so that teams focused solely on software development will have a test bed. The so-called Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) platform will have arms with two or three fingers and 7 degrees of freedom, legs with 6 degrees of freedom, and a head equipped with stereo vision and laser radar.

The challenge was inspired by the Fukushima disaster last year in Japan. Gill Pratt, the DARPA program manager in charge of the challenge, said in the first 24 hours following the disaster crucial tasks couldn’t be performed because it was too dangerous for people to go into the ruined reactor. DARPA is certainly serious about making sure the US can take care of business. The $2 million cash prize is just a small part of their investment. Including the funded research, DARPA will spend up to $34 million for its rescue robot of the future.

Each of the different tasks could probably be performed separately by different robots, but DARPA’s effort to bring the different technologies into a single robot will undoubtedly create something great. I’m excited for our competitors. May the best robot win! What it will look like is anybody’s guess.

[image credits: Boston Dynamics and CNET]
image 1: Petman
image 2: Petman
image 3: iRobot

Ekso's lower body exoskeleton gives paraplegics a chance to walk again, and could become a major part of spinal injury therapy.

Mark down February 14th, 2012 as the day when exoskeletons became an established medical therapy. Ekso Bionics, formerly Berkeley Bionics and creators of the HULC army exoskeleton, have delivered their first commercial lower body system to Craig Hospital in Denver Colorado. The Ekso medical exoskeleton supports the body while moving the user’s legs for them. In other words, Ekso lets paraplegics walk again. Coming out of a ten month investigational study performed across the country, the lower body exoskeleton has been proven safe, but more importantly it’s shown to be an effective means of getting paralyzed patients up and moving, possibly with large long term physical and psychological benefits. The set of robotic legs delivered to Denver is just the first of many for Ekso. Could this be the start of a new era in treating spinal injuries?

Along with its first completed sale, Ekso released a promotional video for their exoskeleton that summarizes the journey the company took to get their robot legs on patients in need:

In the ongoing process of testing and improving their lower body exoskeleton, Ekso has recruited volunteers with spinal injuries to become “test pilots”. The following video describes the impact that walking again has on one of those pilots, more such stories can be found on the Ekso site:

Before Ekso passed through all the hoops required by the FDA for their exoskeleton to be sold, the company partnered with ten rehabilitation centers around the US to perform extensive tests on its use. Over ten months, Ekso (then Berkeley Bionics) worked with its partners to give 70 paraplegic patients an opportunity to walk again in controlled physical therapy sessions. 63 of those patients were able to participate in walking an average of 200 steps during each encounter. In total the study patients were walking 4000 to 5000 steps a week, giving Ekso (and its partners) plenty of experience to determine the safety and even the efficacy of the robotic legs. Singularity Hub was fortunate to attend one of the training sessions in Santa Clara, California, and I can attest that the experience was as impressive for its emotional impact as its technological success.

Ekso’s CEO, Eythor Bender, has trumpeted the commercial launch of the exoskeleton as both a fulfillment of past promises and an indication of future success. They said the Ekso (then called the eLegs) would be ready for Q1 2012, and it was. They said the study would allow for the people who would actually use the device (physical therapists and patients) the chance to improve the exoskeleton with their suggestions. Ekso has adjusted harnesses and control schemes on the system to meet with their comments. They hoped the robotic legs could impact everyone that used it, and they have received enormously positive feedback. Bender recently spoke at Singularity University’s FutureMed Executive Program about Ekso, inviting several of their test pilots to demonstrate and share their experiences. Here’s a taste of that presentation:

*Note, more footage of Bender’s talk is available to Singularity Hub Members.

Ekso is not the only company that has worked with getting paraplegics walking again, but it is the one with seemingly the best foundation for wide-adoption in the US. Craig Hospital is just one of the ten rehabilitation centers where Ekso was tested – it’s likely the other nine may look to purchase a commercial unit soon. The Ekso system could appear in hospitals and spinal injury centers all around the nation in the months ahead.

Which is a very exciting prospect for those who suffer from catastrophic injuries to their back. We know now that Ekso is a safe way to get paraplegics on their feet, and that it is emotionally rewarding to those who use it. What is still to be determined quantitatively, but is heavily suggested by anecdotal evidence, is that assisted walking using the robotic legs may provide enormous long term health benefits including increased musculature, better gastrointestinal health, and improved circulation. Ekso hasn’t spelled this out directly, but doctors at Santa Clara even suggested that immediate therapy using an exoskeleton may provide at least some hope for neural regeneration. That is, that getting back up on your legs very soon after a spinal injury may increase chances of reclaiming some sensation or control. That’s an amazing (albeit very preliminary) possibility.

Even if a walking exoskeleton provides no other benefits than giving a patient the chance to move around independently at their old height, it could still be a very popular tool at rehabilitation centers across the country. Ekso may be on the verge of something big. In the next decade they, and their competitors in the US and abroad, will continue to bring medical exoskeletons into mainstream healthcare. Someday these devices will be commonplace in physical therapy sessions, and will hopefully make their way into homes and offices as well. Who knows, as exoskeleton technology continues to improve we may even see them become fast, efficient, and powerful enough to give patient’s back their full range of motion. That’s a wonderful possibility for the future, and now Ekso has taken a giant step in that direction.

[image and video credits: Ekso Bionics, (FutureMed footage shot by Singularity Hub)]

[source: Ekso]

This X-ray/CT scan shows the placement of electrodes over the temporal lobe that scientists used to decode what the patient was hearing.

The day we can scan a person’s brain and “hear” their inner dialogue just got closer. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley recorded brain activity in patients while the patients listened to a series of words. They then used that brain activity to reconstruct the words with a computer. The research could one day be used to help people unable to speak due to brain damage.

It’s not every day neuroscientists get a chance to record activity from the human brain. A group of 15 patients suffering from either epileptic seizures or brain tumors were already scheduled to undergo neurological procedures. The patients, all English speaking, volunteered for the study. After neurosurgeons cut a hole in their skulls, the research team placed 256 electrodes over the part of the brain that processes auditory signals called the temporal lobe. The scientists then played words, one at a time, to the patients while recording brain activity in the temporal lobe.

The auditory features of a sound can be characterized by what’s called a frequency spectrogram that measures the strength of different frequencies within the sound. The scientists hoped to use the pattern of brain activity while the word “partner,” for example, was played to generate a second spectrogram. Were it perfect, this process, called “stimulus reconstruction,” would reconstruct a frequency spectrogram identical to the original. However, because the temporal lobe is only one of several brain regions that process sound, the scientists did not expect an exact reconstruction.

Brian Pasley, post-doctoral fellow and lead author of the study, devised two different computer models for the stimulus reconstruction. Each was created according to different assumptions about how the brain processes sound. One model outperformed the other, enabling the computer to reconstruct the original word 80 to 90 percent of the time.

A comparison of original and reconstructed frequency spectrograms for a test word.

The study was published recently in PLOS Biology.

That’s music to the ears of people who can’t speak because of brain damage. Strokes or neurodegenerative diseases such as Lou Gehrig’s disease can leave people’s language centers damaged and impair their speech. A critical link between the current study and potentially helping these people is the idea that hearing words and thinking words activate similar brain processes. There is evidence to suggest that this is indeed the case, but more research is needed to work out exactly how perceived speech and inner speech are related. Even so, the current study lends hope to a potential treatment. “If you can understand the relationship well enough between the brain recordings and sound, you could either synthesize the actual sound a person is thinking, or just write out the worlds with a type of interface device,” Pasley told the Berkeley News Center.

Just last year researchers used brain implants to improve memory in rats. Others used an implant to help paralyzed rats walk again. The current study paves the way for yet another domain in which neural interfaces could one day be used to improve our lives.

[image credits: Adeen Flinker via UC Berkeley and modified from PLOS Biology]
image 1: brain waves
image 2: figure

With human-like movements, PETMAN will help the military assess the performance of their chemical protection suits.

Look out cute and cuddly Nao. Get out of the way ever-attentive Asimo, a new robot’s on the march and he can smash both of you and your girly-man voices with his pinky – if he had a pinky, that is, or even hands for that matter. The Terminator-looking PETMAN even has a red light to stare down its soon-to-be roadkill. As it walks, it carries its six-foot, 180 pound frame with an imposing swagger. It can run, do push-ups, and perform other movements with an impressive likeness to the human motions it’s supposed to emulate. The tough guy even keeps its balance when pushed from the side.

PETMAN is Boston Dynamics’ test dummy – Protection Ensemble Test Mannequin – for the military. No, they’re not creating an army of Terminators to replace our troops, but using it to test chemical protection suits for soldiers – at least that’s what’s being widely reported. I couldn’t find the specific DARPA program, and while Boston Dynamics says PETMAN will perform “suit-stressing calisthenics during exposure to chemical warfare agents,” one has to wonder if there are bigger plans for the robot than a chemical bath. Part of a $26.3M program, the advances gleaned from PETMAN could benefit DARPA’s RE-NET program that’s developing neural interfaces for prosthetics. Or we can get really conspiracy theorist here and say DARPA’s hoping to one day put a gun in PETMAN’s capable hands, and eyes on its head, laser-sighting, night vision…anything a kick butt robot soldier might need to crush the enemy. For the time being we’ll let DARPA stick with their chemical suit story. But we know better than that, right?

Boston Dynamics made it a point to build a robot that reproduced human movements with a high degree of realism so that the suits could be accurately evaluated. When fitted with the suits, PETMAN will actually have a physiologic control apparatus to control temperature, humidity, and – get this – sweating. In lieu of volunteers who would readily report that the quinuclidinyl benzilate did in fact get a bit under his collar, I’d say PETMAN will come in quite handy. Watch PETMAN flex its muscles in the following video.

Boston Dynamics specializes in building robots which are heavy duty enough to lend a helping hand to our soldiers on the battlefield. They recently trotted out Alpha Dog, the four-legged robot meant to be the soldier’s best friend by shouldering his gear up to 400 pounds across rough terrain. Like Alpha Dog, PETMAN is being built for DARPA. It took Boston Dynamics 13 months to design the anthropomorphic robot and another 17 months to build it.

I can see it now.

A chemical wave come crashing down on PETMAN, melting its suit and exposing its unearthly metal skeleton underneath. For a moment the robot is down, motionless…then…the red glow flickers back to life, and begins to brighten….

[image credits: Boston Dynamics]
[video credits: Boston Dynamics via YouTube]
images: Boston Dynamics
video: Boston Dynamics

A new brain chip that allows monkeys to control a virtual hand and sense touch may be the breakthrough needed to give paralyzed patients the protheses control they need.

Scientists have created a brain implant that not only allows monkeys to control a computer with their thoughts, it also allows them to “feel” the virtual objects. The new, two-way, brain-machine-brain interface represents a major breakthrough in the field of neuroprosthetics. Bolstered by the results, the scientists plan to test the technology on a quadriplegic in just three years.

There have been a number of advances in brain-machine-interface (BMI) research in recent years. Implants have allowed monkeys to control computer cursors and even a robotic arm with impressive precision. In the current study, two macaques were trained to control a virtual arm on the computer screen and use it to “grasp” virtual objects. What separates these macaques from past BMI trainees is that, when their virtual hands contacted the virtual objects they were able to “feel” the objects.

The macaques were shown three identical objects on the computer screen. They were trained to pass the virtual hand over the three objects and to choose the one that evoked a sensation. Controlling the hand was enabled by electrodes implanted into the motor cortex, a major part of the brain for movement control. First, the activity of hundreds of neurons in the region is recorded while the monkeys control the virtual hand with a joystick. In this way the computer learns what “left” and “right,” etc. means in terms of brain activity. Then the joystick is taken away, and the monkeys are trained to control the hand with their thoughts.

The sensation indicating the correct object caused by electric stimulation through a return connection from the computer to the brain. These electrodes were inserted into the somatosensory cortex, the part of the brain that senses touch. As the virtual hand passed over the correct object the somatosensory cortex was stimulated. If the monkeys chose the correct object they received a food reward. They learned the task quickly. One monkey showed improvements after nine trials, the other after only four. After mastering the task the monkeys were picking the right object nine times out of ten. This shows that they can sense and object without any stimulation to the skin.

The following video shows the avatar arm in action.

“We don’t know what the animals perceived,” Miguel Nicolelis, neuroprosthetic aficionado and lead author of the study, told Nature, “but it was a sensation that was created artificially by linking the virtual fingers to the brain directly.” The study was published in Nature October 5th.

Managing the two signals – out from the motor cortex and into the somatosensory cortex – proved tricky for the researchers. The two areas are close enough together in the brain that the electrical stimulation in the somatosensory cortex would actually leak over to the motor cortex and disrupt control of the virtual hand. They got around this by alternating between recording and stimulating every 50 milliseconds. Of course, normal brain activity usually doesn’t take turns, but the fact that the monkeys were still able to learn the task means the constrained methodology still worked.

To give prosthetics sensory feedback would be huge. Some labs are currently trying to develop prosthetics with sensory feedback functions. One example relays feedback signals through the stump ending nerve terminals. Due to variability in the health of the stump tissue and severed neurons, this approach is less than idea. The two-way communication of BMBI, straight to the brain’s pristine movement and sensory centers could make feedback a reality. If BMBI can be used effectively in humans – a big ‘if’ – it would surpass current BMIs that up till now have relied solely on visual feedback for control. “If you want to reach and grasp a glass, visual feedback won’t help you,” Quian Quiroga, a neuroscientist at the University of Leicester, UK said in a commentary in Nature. Quiroga, who was not involved in the study, added, “It’s the sensory feedback that tells you if you have a good grip or if you are about to drop it.”

The Walk Again Project exoskeleton will be controlled entirely by thoughts.

With the successful BMBI demonstration, Nicolelis and his colleagues are ready to take neuroprostheses to the next level. The Walk Again Project is a collaborative effort involving many scientists from the world’s leading research centers to, through BMI/BMBI technology, do no less than “restore full mobility to patients suffering from a severe degree of paralysis.” Of course, to achieve such a superhuman feat will require superhero suit. In collaboration with Walk Again, Nicolelis’ lab at Duke University are putting together a “wearable robot” or “exoskeleton” designed to support the patient’s body and allow he or she to move at will. As in the study, electrodes will be implanted to give the patient both movement control and the all important feedback. The electrodes will be chronically implanted in at least five different regions on each side of the brain. Whereas a few hundred neurons were sufficient for the macaques to control their virtual arms, the larger human brain requires that a couple thousand brain cells be recorded for proper movement. It’s a major challenge that the researchers will have to overcome before patients can begin donning the exoskeleton. The electrodes will have to be stable for up to a decade, and then there’s always the risk of infection.

The brain chips – if they work – will be a technological triumph by themselves. Custom designed, the brain chips will be low-power and wireless, transmitting their signals to a processing unit worn on the patient’s belt about the size of a cell phone. That brain activity will then be translated to digital motor signals which will control the actuators across the joints of the exoskeleton. Force and stretch sensors throughout the exoskeleton will signal back to the patient’s brain the whereabouts of his or her joints and limbs. They predict that it would only be a matter of weeks before the patient was used to the suit, off on his or her own, experiencing the world like never before.

It’s an ambitious project, to say the least. The scientists are currently working hard to ready the suit for clinical trials over the next three years. You see, they have a deadline: the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Nicolelis, a native Brazilian, hopes to test the exoskeleton on a grand stage by having a young quadriplegic Brazilian deliver the opening kick.

[image credits: The Guardian and Walk Again Project]
[video credits: DukeMedicine via YouTube]
image 1: Virtual arm
image 2: exoskeleton
video: BMBI

Scientists restored a rat's blink reflect with a brain implant that both processes sensory information and controls movement.

Meet Robo-Rat.

In the latest advance in cyborg technology, scientists have replaced the dysfunctional part of a rat’s brain with electrodes and a computer chip. It’s the part of the brain that coordinates movement, so when the chip is off the rat can’t perform a simple movement task. But power up the chip and it performs perfectly. The newest member of the Rat Borg Collective could lead to treatments for people who have impaired movement due to brain damage caused by trauma or stroke.

Scientists at Tel Aviv University first damaged the rat’s cerebellum, the part of the brain involved in the coordination and timing of movements. The researchers then tried to train the impaired rat to blink in response to a tone. Rats with damaged cerebellums were unable to learn the task. When they plugged in the brain implant, however, the rats learned the task just fine.

The tone that failed to make the brain-damaged rats blink was picked up by electrodes and processed in a chip sitting on the rat’s scalp. By bypassing the damaged brain area, the chip not only processed the incoming signals but sent out signals to areas in the brainstem that sent signals to the eye to blink. By replacing brain circuitry with microchip circuitry the researchers were able to return normal behavior to the rats.

Other chip implants have proven successful in mimicking brain function. Cochlear implants help the deaf to hear by transforming sounds into electrical impulses, which then stimulate neurons that pass the signal on to the brain. Robotic prosthetic limbs can now detect neuronal signals in the limbs to control movement. But these implants only process information in one direction. The cerebellar implant, however, represents a major advance in electronic prosthetics as it not only processes incoming sensory information (tone), but it uses that information to generate an output (blink).

“It’s proof of concept that we can record information from the brain, analyze it in a way similar to the biological network, and return it to the brain,” the study’s lead author, Matti Mintz, told New Scientist. He presented the work last month at the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) Conference in the UK. As its name somewhat implies, the SENS Foundation supports research that slows or reverses the aging process. Computer chips could not only restore function to an aging part of the brain, but they might one day improve normal functions such as memory.

It's only a matter of time....

As far as brain systems go, the processing involved in the cerebellum and Mintz’s implant are relatively simple. The cerebellum is largely made up of repeating microcircuits that make it one of the better understood areas of the brain. “We know its anatomy and some of its behaviors almost perfectly,” said Mintz.

Extending their “proven concept” to other brain areas or even just cerebellar tasks that are more complicated will no doubt prove challenging. Mintz and his colleagues say they plan to expand their chip’s processing to include areas of the cerebellum involved in other movements. An important detail in the current study is that the rat was anesthetized. With the circuity intact, it wasn’t necessary for the rat to be awake to connect tone with eye blink. For more complex movements, however, they’re going to have to wake the rat up. That poses a major technical challenge as the precise sensory signals that the chip needs to process to generate a proper output are easily disrupted by a moving rat. It’s a catch-22 in which they want to study movement but they don’t want the rat to move. Overcoming this obstacle may require the development of new technologies, but Dr. Francesco Sepulva of the University of Essex – who was not involved in the study – has faith. “It will likely take us several decades to get there,” he told the New Scientist, “but my bet is that specific, well-organized brain parts such as the hippocampus or the visual cortex will have synthetic correlates before the end of the century.”

[image credits: Wired and mindcontrol101.blogspot]
image 1: robo-rat
image 2: robot-rat

Cyborgs are already walking among us.

Will the future be full of humans who merge with machines to become cyborgs? Ha. It’s already happened. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the hottest new game from Square Enix and it gives us a harsh view of 2027, a year where huge corporations get humanity addicted to cybernetic implants. If that sounds too far fetched to ever come true, I have something to show you. Rob Spence, a present day cyborg and filmmaker known as the Eyeborg, worked with Square Enix to create a kickass documentary about the current reality of cybernetics. The level of human modification already out there may amaze you. Check out Spence as he seeks the truth behind the fiction in the video below. Cameras wired into your brain, robotic knees, prosthetic hands that sense when you want them to move – the world of Deus Ex seems closer everyday.

I urge you to watch the entire 12 minutes of Deus Ex: The Eyeborg Documentary, it’s visually stunning, with gorgeous footage of some of the most exciting projects in cybernetics out there. It’s also told very well. Enjoy:

Rob Spence really is the perfect filmmaker for this project. Not only does his tragic accident with a shotgun mean he understand perspective of the amputees he interviews, he’s one of the most enthusiastic cyborgs out there. For the past few years he and the rest of the Eyeborg Project team have created the camera implant he wears and worked tirelessly to get their own documentary made about that implant. Through his filmmaking Spence is advocate, subject, and commentator on cybernetics – how could Square Enix choose anyone else?

Silly video games, cyborgs already have guns.

In fact, Spence may be the best proof that the premises behind Deus Ex may come true. Not the bleak corporate take-over or the fierce battles between cyborgs in city streets. Spence shows how the determination to repair our bodies could very well lead to a desire to enhance them. How many filmmakers like Spence and how many ingenious amputees struggling to regain their capabilities using machines will it take to push humanity towards augmentation. We may already have plenty as it is. If we can’t say no to these determined individuals as they become cyborgs, will we be able to say no to our children when they want to see farther, run longer, and be stronger with the help of implants? I think not.

Of course, as the documentary points out, cybernetics are not the only path towards repairing damaged bodies. Stem cell and other forms of regenerative medicine research have made great strides in using biology to heal biology. If a cellular solution to amputation came on the market you can bet humanity would turn away from cybernetics in favor of a more complete repair.

…but once we started using biotechnology to do something as drastic as replacing a lost limb what’s to stop us from asking for augmentation from the same tech?

Here's to cybernetics. Cheers.

One way or another, I think that seeking a ‘cure’ to amputation, blindness, etc will lead to at least the possibility of human augmentation. Once any repair is as good as the original, there’s little doubt that people will start to push it a little farther. Smart, ambitious, and insightful people like Spence and his documentary subjects. We should enjoy Deus Ex: Human Revolution for what it is: a beautiful video game set in an exciting fictional universe. But we should also prepare ourselves for the very real consequences that are coming from our current pursuit of cybernetics. The step from healing to enhancing is smaller than we think. Transhumanism is coming, and 2027 is closer than we think.

Oh, and if you’re a female leg amputee near Toronto and you want to work with Spence on an absurd and awesome project, check out his website for more details.

[screen capture and video credits: Square Enix/Rob Spence Eyeborg Project]
[source: Square Enix, Rob Spence Eyeborg Project]

An early Handroid prototype showcases its easy control style.

If you’ve never thought about describing a robotic limb as sleek and sexy then you’ve never met Handroid. The latest production of Japan-based ITK, Handroid is a five fingered robot hand that moves smoothly using cables attached to motors in the forearm rather than bulky servos embedded in each digit. That design allows Handroid to be lightweight (just 740g) as well as move in a decidedly human manner. Currently, Handroid is remotely operated using a glove, allowing you to flex each robot finger as easily as you do your own. Check out the Handroid in action in the video below, followed by some great pics of the device. One day this robotic hand may allow human workers to handle dangerous materials from the safety of their office, and other models are planned as prostheses for amputees. Hope you like the look for Handroid, because we’re probably going to see a lot more of it in the future.

A better look at the cable approach to hand movement.

As cool as Handroid may appear, ITK is entering into some dangerous competition with this device. Robot hands are everywhere, and many have impressive credentials that will be hard to beat. We’ve seen the glove-control before with Shadow Hand, and Tsukuba University did it one better by using cameras to create a system that tracks your hand movement visually. While ITK is still in early stages of being adapted to become a prosthesis, other companies have working models ready for sale. i-Limb has an $11000 robot hand you can wear today that uses myoelectric signals detected in nerves left in residual muscle under the skin. The Smart Hand directly links to nerve endings in your arm, and researchers are already working on hands that connect to electrodes wired into your brain. ITK is exploring options for myoelectric, cerebral, and muscular nerve signals to control Handroid, but we’re probably looking at years of work before such controls could be developed.

The saving grace for Handroid may be its cost. Robonable reports that ITK plans to sell the device in the next two years for around 500,000 Y (~$6500 USD). That’s a great price, especially considering that other lightweight cable-based hands like the one made by DLR cost upwards of $100,000. I’ve less of a feeling of whether the pulley system, rather than embedded servos, is that much of a selling point for Handroid considering how servos become lighter and more efficient every year. True, Handroid moves really smoothly when compared to the competition, but ultimately I think it will be price that determines who wins in the race to develop prosthetic and robotic hands.

If the video didn’t satisfy your lust for Handroid imagery, here are few more pics for you to enjoy.

Right now, Handroid's controls are hardwired into the robot hand, but considering the limited amount of data used, there's no reason communication couldn't be wireless later.

Various Handroid models show different approaches that may be used for prosthetic limbs.

[image credits: ITK]
[video credits: ITK]
[sources: ITK (En), ITK (Jp), Robonable]

Pistorius narrowly missed qualifying for the 2008 Olympics when his 400m time was just a little shy of the mark. His July 19th run at Ligano, Italy came in at just 45.07 seconds, a personal best and well under (competitively speaking) the 45.25 qualifying time. Here’s his historic run. I love how happy his competitors are to see him succeed:

Since his bid to join the South African 2008 Olympic team, Pistorius has garnered the critique of many around the world who feel his prosthetics give him an unfair advantage. He was first denied, then allowed to try for the team. You can see why some would want to bar Pistorius from competing. The Cheetah Flex Foot carbon fiber devices are designed to absorb shock and transfer energy into forward momentum…but so are human lower legs and feet. Considering that Pistorius has fewer muscles than other racers and no sensation in his contact surface, I think he’s overcoming disadvantages, not resting on technology to do work for him. Watch the following two brief documentaries, the first a shorter clip developed for Nike, the second a 10 minute story by Al Jazeera English, and decide for yourself whether the magic is in the runner or the legs:

Despite the controversy around his legs, or perhaps because of it, Pistorius has been the subject of several successful ad campaigns. His determination has helped sell Nike products, and even Amen cologne. I don’t understand why anyone would want to smell like a sprinter, but I do get the appeal behind having Pistorius in these ads. The man looks like a jet fighter during take off – check it out:

While Pistorius is undoubtedly a great athlete, it’s the technological and social changes he represents that may have the deeper impact on our world. Amputees with phenomenal athletic skill can compete with able-bodied athletes of the highest caliber, and they are cheered and lauded as much as they are challenged by detractors. That’s the reality of today, and I wonder what it bodes for tomorrow. Ossur will continue to make improvements on their lower limb prosthetics, and we’ve already seen other developers create powered synthetic ankles and feet. How many years until such devices are clearly conferring an advantage to those who wear them? How powerful would prostheses need to be before able bodied humans wanted to upgrade themselves?

The media cheer around Pistorius isn’t just a retelling of the standard “overcoming adversity” Olympic human interest story, it’s a sign that many people are beginning to accept a slightly wider definition of humanity. Sure, Pistorius has synthetic legs, but he’s all athlete. His mechanical hybridization is simply part of his specialness. He’s “The Blade Runner”. I can’t wait for him to compete as an equal in the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 Olympics.

But honestly, I really can’t wait until some prosthesis wearing athlete soars past “equality” and starts to compete on a level all of their own.

Can’t get enough of The Blade Runner? Check out more great pics below!

[image credits: OscarPistorius.com (ads as indicated), Elian Palsson/Coda.coza]
[video credits: Great121ful, Nike, Al Jazeera English, Amen]
[source: Oscar Pistorius, Ossur]

Damn but that was a great ride, wasn’t it? I absolutely love how they use hyper-realistic news-like footage. All the little tropes we’ve come to expect – the distorted voices and concealed identities, the commentary from experts, the slick propaganda – are blended together so seamlessly. Absolutely great. And it doesn’t stop with this trailer, mind you. Eidos Montreal, the creators of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, has created a faux website for the primary corporation in the game, Sarif Industries. You have to check it out just to experience how trippy it is. On every angle, Eidos has applied some brilliantly immersive story-telling techniques to build our anticipation for this game.

I just wish it had a better message about the future. You’ve heard me sing this tune before when I reviewed the last (almost equally awesome) trailer for Deus Ex. The effort put into this game is phenomenal, but the pessimism is a little much for me to let pass unchallenged. Human augmentation is just a new form of enslavement? C’mon. Last time I checked, the real world scientists and companies creating artificial eyes and limbs were much more concerned with helping people than turning them into drug-addicted minions.

Meh, maybe great story-telling needs its villains. I wish they didn’t have to be tech-enthusiasts like myself, but what are ya gonna do? Fear of the future is practically an entertainment industry standard. You keep turning me off with your hate for transhumanism, but I can’t stay mad at you, Deus Ex. …You’re just too damn pretty.

[screen capture and video credits: Eidos Montreal]
[source: Deus Ex]

The world's first synthetic trachea. The pink coloration is due to stem cells that have differentiated to tracheal tissue.

Regenerative medicine history was made on June 9th at Stockholm’s Karolinska University Hospital when doctors successfully gave Andemariam Beyene a synthetic trachea. The 36-year old African native, who is working towards a PhD in geology in Iceland, was diagnosed in 2008 with tracheal cancer. Despite treating it aggressively with radiation and chemotherapy the tumor continued to grow. When the tumor had grown to the size of a golfball and began to occlude Beyene’s breathing. It became clear that different measures needed to be taken or he would die. Trachea replacement was the treatment of choice but they didn’t have a donor and time was running out.

So the doctors decided to make a new trachea from scratch.

The surgery brought together experts from three continents. Dr. Paolo Macchiarini at Karolinska University Hospital, who led the surgery, collaborated with scientists in the UK to engineer a nanocomposite trachea scaffold. With measurements acquired through 3D scans the scaffold was molded to the exact dimensions of Beyene’s trachea. Like a real trachea it was a kind of flexible tube segmented with stiff rings. After being shipped to Sweden, the scaffold was placed in a bioreactor provided by Harvard Bioscience, along with stem cells extracted from Beyene’s bone marrow. Chemicals inside the bioreactor induced the stem cells to differentiate into trachea tissue and they grew into the nanocomposite mold which was porous like a sponge. Amazingly, the synthetic trachea was ready to implant in just two days. “Stem cells from the own patient were growing inside and outside,” Macchiarini told CNN. “The structure was becoming a living structure.” The operation lasted 12 hours, during which Dr. Macchiarini removed the tumor and the diseased section of the trachea and replaced it with its living duplicate.

Harvard Bioscience's "InBreath" bioreactor needed only two days to turn a nanoparticle composite into a trachea.

A major risk with trachea transplants–or, for that matter, transplants of any organ–is that the donor organ will be rejected by the recipient’s immune system. Up until now trachea scaffolds have been provided by organ donors. They’re cut to size and the outer layers of cells are washed off. To prevent rejection from the host the scaffolds are coated with stem cells from the recipient. The advantages of a purely synthetic trachea are two-fold: you don’t need to wait for a donor and the implant is a perfect fit. And the fact that it takes only two days before it’s ready for implantation means more patients can be treated earlier and thus have a greater chance to be cured. Karolinska University Hospital also acknowledged that the treatment could greatly benefit children for whom donor tracheas are much less available compared to adults.

Bioengineered trachea transplants have come a long way in a short period of time. It was only 2008 when Dr. Macchiarini himself became the first to implant a trachea covered with the recipient’s own stem cells. This past January he led a heroic surgery to restore the voice box of a woman from California who’d been incapable of speaking for more than a decade. Beyene’s transplant is only the surgeon’s 11th trachea transplant overall.

This is the fourth time in a year and a half that we’ve reported on Dr. Macchiarini’s remarkable work. It’s indicative of a field and its pioneer moving rapidly forward. It’s also a superb example of multi-disciplinary collaboration. In comments to BBC, Dr. Macchiarini referred to nanotechnology as a “new branch of regenerative medicine.” He went on to suggest that the same approach could be used to repair or replace other organs.

In fact, the entire field of regenerative medicine seems to be moving rapidly. Last year a “magic powder” was used to grow back fingertips. Just months ago the same substance was used to grow back a Marine’s thigh muscle. And it seems like every time we turn around there’s another breakthrough in stem cell research. It’s one of the most exciting pursuits in science today.

It’s been over a month now since Beyene received his new trachea. He’s still in the hospital and he’s still pretty weak. But he’s looking forward to finishing his studies and rejoining his family back in Eritrea. “I was very scared, very scared about the operation,” he told BBC. “But it was live or die.”

An exciting pursuit indeed, made even more so by the people it helps.

[image credits: Harvard Bioscience]
image1: Trachea
image2: Bioreactor

The hype about freeing paraplegics from the chair true, but the near future of eLegs is all about revolutionizing rehab.

Robotic legs may get paraplegics walking again, and in more ways than one. Exoskeleton startup Berekely Bionics has partnered with ten of the top physical rehabilitation centers in the United States to test their eLegs walking system. eLegs, which consists of a lower body exoskeleton with a backpack style control and battery unit, can bear the weight of a human user, allowing him or her to take steps using only the power of the device. In other words, eLegs allows paraplegics to walk. It’s freakin’ amazing, and I had a chance to see it in person recently at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. Watch as one of the eLegs test patients, Stephanie Sablan, walks and talks in the video below. Set to hit the market in early 2012, eLegs could help the paralyzed spend more time out of their wheelchairs. More than freedom, the exoskeleton could also be a key component of maintaining their health and perhaps even taking a few steps towards neurological recovery.

Stephanie Sablan has been paralyzed since January of this year after an auto accident caused by her texting while driving. Determined to make the most of her misfortune, she began physical rehabilitation just three days after her accident. Starting in May that rehab included half hour sessions once a week using eLegs. The following video was shot on her final day of eLegs rehab, in late June. Quite the charmer, you can see Sablan is also working hard during the trial. While not in direct control of eLegs (its operated by the physical therapist) she must maintain her balance using her torso and arms. eLegs, which weighs 45 lbs, supports its own weight, and the weight of the user, but still requires the active work of the patient to work properly. Sablan manages wonderfully, even if making turns seems like it was a real pain in the neck.

Full HD is available, and I apologize for the loud background noise but this was a real training session, not a press event.

The creators of the HULC exoskeleton for the US Army, Berkeley Bionics (and Lockheed Martin) have often shown their exos in dynamic motion, augmenting human efficiency and endurance. Even the eLegs demos we’ve seen have highlighted the triumph and power a paraplegic user feels when stepping into the device and walking for the first time. I can’t argue with that image because it is an emotionally impacting and accurate one. But I wanted you all to see something a little different in the video above. This is a device that takes hours of hard work to master, and that hard work is actually part of what makes them so useful. Yes, eventually eLegs may be able to act as another kind of assistance device, an alternative to the wheelchair which helps the paralyzed regain their height and standing in society. More importantly, however, eLegs could possibly revolutionize physical rehabilitation. We may be looking at a game-changer here, folks.

Appearing at 4:43in the video is Dr. Akshat Shah, Santa Clara’s Chief of Spinal Cord and Orthopedic Rehabilitation. He described to me the goals and preliminary results of the eLegs trial. Currently, Santa Clara is about halfway through their tests, with an expected total of 6-10 patients. Too small of a study to see how eLegs affects patients neurologically, the trial is mainly set to establish safety of the device. Which it has done, hands down. Shah says that with easy access to Berkeley Bionics staff (Santa Clara is the only one of the ten test facilities in California, and the one whose patients will get the most time with the device) they’re looking to see how therapists can best use eLegs, how training sessions should be built, and if/when control can be passed to the patient directly.

Ten facilities in the US (including Hawaii) will test eLegs this year. All should have their own set by early 2012 when the device is hoped to reach market.

Why all this work to see how eLegs works in the rehab setting? While eLegs, and many of its competing exoskeletons, have been marketed as freedom-enabling devices for paraplegics, that’s really only one benefit. Shah tells me that “early acute intervention” is a critical component for recovery in patients with traumatic spinal injury. In other words, you want patients in rehab as soon as feasible, often just a week after injury and surgery. The earlier and faster you can get a patient ‘on the mat’ the less muscle loss they will experience, and the better their chance for some neuroregeneration and neurological recovery.

Yes, walking with eLegs can be a life-changing and hope-providing opportunity, but its advantages go far beyond the emotional and psychological. Standing upright (in a harness) has been shown to improve circulation, muscle maintenance, bowel regularity, and even provide some neurological benefits to those regularly confined to wheelchairs. The truth is we don’t know what years of regularly walking with robotic legs will do for paraplegics, but there’s at least some chance that it could actually help them recover to some degree.

That blows my mind.

And Shah thinks it could help with patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, arthritis, and strokes. This is all looking a little far ahead, but the question isn’t if we should get all these people into exoskeletons, the question is how. Berkeley Bionics is now aiming to get eLegs on the market by early 2012, and has the funding and production in place to get those units shipped. Yet it seems that every rehabilitation center in the nation, and the world, will want a copy. That’s just the professional market. If Stephanie Sablan is any indication, once patients get a taste of eLegs they’re going to want their own pair to take home. Berkeley Bionics will need to find a way to provide for this market, as well as make eLegs affordable to both facilities and (eventually) individuals. In the following video, CEO Eythor Bender discusses the financial side of the company as well as a look at the device:

Pilot trials now, rehab centers receiving their own devices next year, and individuals getting eLegs in some point in the future (hopefully 2013 as Bender suggests). Berkeley Bionic’s exoskeleton has a bright future that is approaching rapidly. While other competitors are already on the market to some degree, it’s still anybody’s guess as to which will make the biggest splash. Whether it’s eLegs or another device, medical exoskeletons could be the biggest innovation in spinal cord treatment in the past twenty years. Beyond that exoskeletons could revolutionize the military, elder care, extreme sports, and beyond. As Eythor asks, “why not bionics for everyone?”

*Special thanks to Beverly Milson at Missing Sock for putting all the ducks in a row, and Clay Robeson for technical help (aka shooting those ducks).

[image and video credits: Aaron Saenz/Singularity Hub]
[source: Berkeley Bionics, comments made by Stephanie Sablan and Dr. Akshat Shah]

Help! That robot camera has a flamethrower!

Walking robotic cameras have armed themselves, are seeking your destruction, and the guy from the Highlander TV series is the only one who can save humanity. I love bad movies, and Eyeborgs is a movie so bad it’s amazingly good. In the science fiction future of this film, ongoing terrorist attacks have led to the creation of mobile walking cameras, the eponymous Eyeborgs, that can spy on citizens wherever they go. Of course it’s only a matter of time before these voyeuristic bots pick up weapons and turn on their masters. Check out the amazingly hilarious trailer below to learn more. While Eyeborgs has the right blend of silly and stunning visuals to make it a cult classic, its underlying message may be even more potent. With concerns over physical and digital monitoring on the rise, this silly movie asks a serious question: is technology robbing us of our privacy?

I wouldn’t dare rob you of the satisfaction of watching the Eyeborg trailer, so without further ado, here’s the clip:

If you can’t get enough of Eyeborgs, don’t worry, the full length feature is available for sale on DVD.

When Adrian Paul (Highlander: The TV Series) and Danny Trejo (every B-movie ever) gleefully destroy the Eyeborg menace, they’re enacting a vengeful fantasy that’s growing more popular these days. CCTV cameras now blanket London, are growing more prevalent in Europe, and have become lucrative means of collecting traffic fines in the US. As governments become more dependent on cameras to monitor security checkpoints, and bring in revenue, they’ve raised very real concerns about when public behavior can be recorded. The technology behind such cameras is only improving, and will soon be augmented by advanced audio surveillance, and smarter computer analysis.

In a way Eyeborgs, which was released in 2009, is fairly prescient. While we’ve yet to roboticize, or arm, CCTV cameras, governments are spying on their citizens surreptitiously – they’re just doing it online. As we’ve mentioned before, popular sites like Facebook collect personalized data that can be (and quite frequently is) shared with governments under the auspices of fighting crime, especially terrorism. The perceived dangers to this monitoring are so great that the UN’s Human Rights Council released a special report advocating the protection of anonymous speech on the internet.

Yet the Eyeborgs movie got something else right about this controversy: even as we take it seriously, we act very silly. Privacy concerns about digital and visual surveillance are valid, but they are undermined by cultural attitudes that are increasingly flippant about what constitutes public behavior. We share so much personal information on Facebook and Twitter. In fact, we have dozens of high traffic sites, like Damn You Autocorrect, and Failbook that do nothing but publish our private mistakes made in digital mediums. Every smart phone is a handheld camera waiting to immortalize you on YouTube, and by the end of the year we’ll have cheap video glasses that will make it nearly impossible to know when you’re being recorded. We may fear the government’s surveillance, but we’ve already invaded our privacy pretty well on our own.

In a world where everyone shares too much information, one man realizes he’s become what he hates most…

Eyeborgs 2: We Are the Eyeborgs

…Coming this Fall to a hidden video screen near you.

[image and video credits: Eyeborgs the movie]
[source: Eyeborgs]

It may not be very long before humans are using neural implants to enhance cognitive performance.

Recent advances in neural prosthetics have allowed people to control a computer cursor using only their thoughts, and allowed one paralyzed man to walk again after five years. Now, for the first time, scientists have used the brain’s own activity patterns to improve cognitive function. The research may lead to the development of prosthetics that improve impaired cognitive function brought on by neurological disorders such as dementia or Alzeheimer’s disease.

The research was led by Wake Forest University’s Sam Deadwyler and included scientists at Wake and the University of Southern California. Published recently in the Journal of Neural Engineering the study tested the effectiveness of mimicking brain activity to improve the memory capabilities of rats. To measure their memory function, the rats were trained to remember the correct lever among two choices to push in order to receive food, The correct lever, being the one revealed to them first, thus gave the rats two things to remember: the first-lever rule that applies to all trials (long-term memory), and which one is actually first during each trial (short-term memory). After a wait period, the rats then had to push the lever opposite to the one they had seen in order to receive a food reward. The test is a good measure of memory function because the rats had to remember which lever they’d initially seen.

The researchers recorded neuronal activity in the hippocampus–a part of the brain known to be crucial for new memory formation in both rats and humans–while the rats were performing the task. Specifically, they placed their electrodes in between two regions of the hippocampus called CA1 and CA3. These regions are longtime favorites of memory-enthusiast neuroscientists and the connection between them is one of the most well-characterized synapses in all the brain. An interesting observation arose when the activity between CA1 and CA3 was recorded: if the rat remembered the right lever, they saw one pattern, if the rat picked the wrong lever they saw a different pattern. The results were so consistent, in fact, that the researchers were able to tell whether or not the rat guessed right by looking at the brain activity alone.

Dr. Samuel Deadwyler is a lot more excited about his team's new findings than he looks.

Which is really interesting in and of itself, if you’re at all interested in how the brain works. The scientists were actually imaging memory. This was not novel, however, as other researchers had before been able to predict correct or not correct guesses based on the rat’s brain activity. What is novel about the current research is that they put this principle to use. Since they knew what a correct answer looked like in terms of hippocampal activity, could they make the rat guess right just by “playing back” the correct pattern or neuronal activity with electrical stimulation? To test this they used drugs to destroy the CA3-to-CA1 connection. In the absence of stimulation the rats remembered the first-lever rule but they couldn’t remember which of the two was first. They got it right about half the time, as would be expected from purely guessing. When the “correct answer” pattern of activity was played back to the CA1 through stimulation, however, the rats chose the correct lever about 90% of the time.

In additional experiments the hippocampus was left intact. With a healthy hippocampus the memory of the correct lever faded by about 40% following a long distraction period. With stimulation, however, the memory faded by only 10% in the same amount of time.

To make sure that the activity pattern really needed to look like the pattern normally found in the brain, the researchers stimulated normal rats using the wrong type of activity pattern. The erroneous signals actually made the rats perform worse than if they were left alone. The authors speculate that the jumbled signals override the correct signals that the brain would otherwise successfully send to the hippocampus–like a three-year old banging on piano keys while you’re trying to listen to Brahms. This experiment confirmed that, to improve performance, you truly do have to play back the specific pattern of brain signals that occur when the task is being done right.

The strategy of stimulating the brain in ways that mimic its normal, behaviorally-relevant activity is rare. In their paper, the authors cite only one study in which simulated neuronal activity was delivered to the brain to affect behavior. Significantly, this study was carried out in humans. Electrodes were implanted into the visual cortex of patients that were to undergo brain surgery. The idea of this study was to determine how strong signals needed to be in the visual cortex for the patients to “see” something. As in the current study, these researchers recorded normal brain activity and “played” it back to the patients.

The authors suggest that their model–what they call multi-input/multi-output or MIMO–is not useful only for the hippocampus or for memory, but may be applied to constructing prostheses needed to bridge information between any two brain structures. But the current, memory-enhancing demonstration gives hope that such a device for humans could give hope to people and families afflicted with dementia. As the study’s lead author, Theodore Berger, told the New York Times, “If you’re caring for someone in the house, for example, it might be enough to keep the person out of the nursing home.”

And it’s not hard to see how these sorts of implants might be used by perfectly healthy people. Will we see a day when we give our CA1 a little jolt because we can’t find our car keys? It probably won’t happen for some time…but my feeling is that it is going to happen. As more and more rats become smarter at the push of a button, and the technology becomes safer, less invasive, and more effective, I don’t see humans staying away from the benefits for very long.

[image credits: mpconsulting and Wake Forest University]
image 1: Brain Computer
image 2: Deadwyler