EXPERIMENTAL devices that read brain signals have helped paralysed people use computers and may let amputees control bionic limbs. But existing devices use tiny electrodes that poke into the brain. Now, a University of Utah, United States study shows that brain signals controlling arm movements can be detected accurately using new microelectrodes that sit on the brain but don’t penetrate it.
“The unique thing about this technology is that it provides lots of information out of the brain without having to put the electrodes into the brain,” says Bradley Greger, an assistant professor of bioengineering and coauthor of the study. “That lets neurosurgeons put this device under the skull but over brain areas where it would be risky to place penetrating electrodes: areas that control speech, memory and other cognitive functions.”
For example, the new array of microelectrodes someday might be placed over the brain’s speech center in patients who cannot communicate because they are paralysed by spinal injury, stroke, Lou Gehrig’s disease or other disorders, he adds. The electrodes would send speech signals to a computer that would covert the thoughts to audible words.
For people who have lost a limb or are paralyzed, “this device should allow a high level of control over a prosthetic limb or computer interface,” Greger says. “It will enable amputees or people with severe paralysis to interact with their environment using a prosthetic arm or a computer interface that decodes signals from the brain.”
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