27-08-2014, 01:13 PM
A Seminar report on BrainGate
[attachment=67141]
ABSTRACT
BrainGate was developed by the bio-tech company Cyberkinetics in 2003 in conjunction with the Department of Neuroscience at Brown University. The device was designed to help those who have lost control of their limbs, or other bodily functions. The computer chip, which is implanted into the brain, monitors brain activity in the patient and converts the intention of the user into computer commands. Currently the chip uses 100 hair-thin electrodes that 'hear' neurons firing in specific areas of the brain, for example, the area that controls arm movement. The activities are translated into electrically charged signals and are then sent and decoded using a program, thus moving the arm. According to the Cyberkinetics' website, two patients have been implanted with the BrainGate system.
The BrainGate Neural Interface System is currently the subject of a pilot clinical trial being conducted under an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) from the FDA. The system is designed to restore functionality for a limited, immobile group of severely motor-impaired individuals. It is expected that people using the BrainGate System will employ a personal computer as the gateway to a range of self-directed activities. These activities may extend beyond typical computer functions (e.g., communication) to include the control of objects in the environment such as a telephone, a television and lights.
The BrainGate System is based on Cyberkinetics' platform technology to sense, transmit, analyze and apply the language of neurons. The System consists of a sensor that is implanted on the motor cortex of the brain and a device that analyzes brain signals. The principle of operation behind the BrainGate System is that with intact brain function, brain signals are generated even though they are not sent to the arms, hands and legs. The signals are interpreted and translated into cursor movements, offering the user an alternate "BrainGate pathway" to control a computer with thought, just as individuals who have the ability to move their hands use a mouse.
Cyberkinetics is further developing the BrainGate System to potentially provide limb movement to people with severe motor disabilities. The goal of this development program would be to allow these individuals to one day use their own arms and hands again. Limb movement developments are currently at the research stage and are not available for use with the existing BrainGate System. In addition Cyberkinetics is developing products to allow for robotic control, such as a thought-controlled wheelchair.
In the future, the BrainGate System could be used by those individuals whose injuries are less severe. Next generation products may be able to provide an individual with the ability to control devices that allow breathing, bladder and bowel movements.
CYBERKINETICS
The idea of a machine that could read peoples’ minds has long been a farfetched and intriguing idea for the world of technology. However, this improbable development may be becoming more and more of a reality. Cyberkinetics Inc based in Foxboro, Mass. is developing a chip that can be implanted
The chip has just received FDA approval and has begun its clinical trial. It is the hope of Cyberkinetics Inc that the chip will allow patients to command a computer action by simply thinking about it.
Cyberkinetics Inc is one of the leading corporations in the field of brain computer interfaces. The company was established in 2001 in an effort to commercialize advances by Brown University scientists in the field of neurology. The chief executive of the company is Tim Surgenor, and he is a leading proponent in the development of direct brain connection technology.
Cyberkinetics Inc has dubbed its development of this product as the BrainGate System. This campaign is hopped to be the breakthrough technological advance in the field of computer interfacing. Not only does this system expect to aid individuals with motor impairments through supporting their use of the computer, but it also hopes to monitor the treatment of certain diseases, such as epilepsy and depression.
The BrainGate System has been under research and development for more than ten years at Brown University. CyberKinetics Inc has just recently launched a trial of this system in five severely disabled individuals. However, the system was first tested by Cyberkinetics founder, John Donoghue, on three rhesus monkeys. The system was successful with this monkey testing. One of the monkeys was able to move a computer cursor using his brain.
Other Companies
Cyberkinetics Inc is not the only company that is working on the development of direct brain connections. Similar efforts have been made by an Atlanta based company called Neural Signals as well as the New York State Department of Health under Dr. Jonathan Wolpaw.
Neural Signals has conducted its clinical trial and is hoping to make connections similar to that of Cyberkinetics. Dr. Wolpaw’s research focuses on the ability to train the mind and have it adapt to new patterns of cause and effect. Although great strides have been made in both of these efforts, it is believed that Cyberkinetics Inc will be the first to conduct a long term trial with more sophisticated devices
WHAT IS BRAINGATE
The Braingate program aims at developing a fast, reliable and inconspicuous connection between the brain of a severely disabled person and a personal computer.
The BrainGate Neural Interface Device is a proprietary brain computer interface that uses an internal sensor to detect brain activity and external processors that convert these brain signals into a computer-mediated output under the person’s own control. The BrainGate System is a hardware device that uses software. The sensor consists of a tiny chip, smaller than a baby asprin, which contains one hundred electrode sensors that each tap into a separate neuron. BrainGate senses, analyses, and transmits the data from the brain to an outside system. This allows the user to interact with the outside world in a more independent way. The ultimate goal of the BrainGate System development program is to create a safe, effective and unobtrusive universal operating system that will enable those with motor impairments to control a wide range of devices, including computers, assistive technologies and medical devices, by simply using their thoughts.
BrainGate contains a chip that is implanted on the surface of the motor cortex area of the brain. In the pilot version of the device, a cable connects the sensor to an external signal processor in a cart that contains three computers. The computers translate hard-to detect brain signals to create the communication output using custom decoding software. When the patient is connected to the system he or she can mentally move the cursor just like a mouse would do. John Donoghue, the chair of the Department of Neuroscience at Brown University, led the original project research and went on to co-found Cyberkinetics, where he is currently chief scientific officer overseeing the clinical trial. . The development of the BrainGate program is the culmination of 10 years of research in the academic laboratory at Brown University. Hugh Herr, another scientist, also helped in the development of a neural interface system. Herr became very passionate about the development of a technology that would give independence and movement back to people that were physically impaired. Herr lost both legs at a young age from frostbite. He then started research on combining both body and machine, his research has already made a significant impact for people that are physically challenged. He has helped in the development of many prosthetics.
Brain Gate Clinical Trials
Partnering with leading rehabilitation centers in Boston, Chicago and Providence, Cyber kinetics is currently recruiting patients to enroll in a pilot clinical trial of the Brain Gate Neural Interface System.
The Brain Gate System is designed to provide a means for people with severe motor impairment a new method to communicate with a computer directly with their thoughts. As an investigational device, the Brain Gate System is only offered through the clinical trial and is not commercially available
A BOON TO THE PARALYZED
It will now be possible for a patient with spinal cord injury to produce brain signals that relay the intention of moving the paralyzed limbs, as signals to an implanted sensor, which is then output as electronic impulses. These impulses enable the user to operate mechanical devices with the help of a computer cursor.
A report appearing in the July 13 issue of Nature includes the first published findings from an ongoing clinical trial of the Brain Gate Neural Interface System, a brain-computer interface device in the early stages of clinical testing at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and other institutions across the country.
"The broad question we are addressing is whether it's possible for someone with paralysis to use the activity of the motor cortex [the part of the brain responsible for motion] to control an external device," says Leigh Hochberg, MD, PhD, a neurologist at MGH, Spaulding and Brigham and Women's Hospital and lead author of the Nature paper. "There has been a question of how the function of the cortex might change after it was disconnected from the rest of the body by damage to the spinal cord. We're finding that, even years after spinal cord injury, the same signals that originally controlled a limb are available and can be utilized."
Manufactured by Cyber kinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc., of Foxborough, Mass., the Brain Gate System consists of an internal sensor to detect brain cell activity and external processors that convert brain impulses into computerized signals. Two clinical trials are currently underway to evaluate the system's safety and feasibility for detecting and translating brain activity from patients with paralysis resulting from spinal cord injury, brain stem stroke or muscular dystrophy and patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease). John Donoghue, PhD, a neuroscience professor and director of the Brain Science Program at Brown University and the senior author of the Nature paper, is a co-founder of Cyber kinetics
BRAIN-MACHINE INTERFACE
A brain-machine interface (BMI), sometimes called a direct neural interface or a brain-machine interface, is a direct communication pathway between a human or animal brain (or brain cell culture) and an external device. In one-way BMIs, computers either accept commands from the brain or send signals to it (for example, to restore vision) but not both.[1] Two-way BMIs would allow brains and external devices to exchange information in both directions but have yet to be successfully implanted in animals or humans.
The Electric Brain
The reason a BCI works at all is because of the way our brains function. Our brains are filled with neurons, individual nerve cells connected to one another by dendrites and axons. Every time we think, move, feel or remember something, our neurons are at work. That work is carried out by small electric signals that zip from neuron to neuron as fast as 250 mph [source: Walker]. The signals are generated by differences in electric potential carried by ions on the membrane of each neuron.
Although the paths the signals take are insulated by something called myelin, some of the electric signal escapes. Scientists can detect those signals, interpret what they mean and use them to direct a device of some kind. It can also work the other way around. For example, researchers could figure out what signals are sent to the brain by the optic nerve when someone sees the color red. They could rig a camera that would send those exact
BMI Applications
One of the most exciting areas of BMI research is the development of devices that can be controlled by thoughts. Some of the applications of this technology may seem frivolous, such as the ability to control a video game by thought. If you think a remote control is convenient, imagine changing channels with your mind.
However, there's a bigger picture -- devices that would allow severely disabled people to function independently. For a quadriplegic, something as basic as controlling a computer cursor via mental commands would represent a revolutionary improvement in quality of life. But how do we turn those tiny voltage measurements into the movement of a robotic arm?
Early research used monkeys with implanted electrodes. The monkeys used a joystick to control a robotic arm. Scientists measured the signals coming from the electrodes. Eventually, they changed the controls so that the robotic arm was being controlled only by the signals coming form the electrodes, not the joystick.
Competitive Advantage
The BrainGate Neural Interface System is being designed to one day allow the user to interface with a computer and/or other devices at a level of speed, accuracy and precision that is comparable to, or even faster than, what is possible with the hands of a non-disabled person. The BrainGate System may offer substantial improvement over existing assistive technologies.
Currently available assistive devices have significant limitations for both the person in need and the caregiver. For example, even simple switches must be adjusted frequently, a process that can be time consuming. In addition, these devices are often obtrusive and may prevent the user from being able to simultaneously use the device and at the same time establish eye contact or carry on conversations with others.
Potential advantages of the BrainGate System over other muscle driven or brain-based computer interface approaches include: its potential to interface with a computer without weeks or months of training; its potential to be used in an interactive environment, where the user's ability to operate the device is not affected by their speech, eye movements or ambient noise; and the ability to provide significantly more usefulness and utility than other approaches by connecting directly to the part of the brain that controls hand movement and gestures.
Conclusion
Brain gate technology has proven to be a solution not only for the quadriplegics but it goes far beyond that . It is an early step towards learning to read signals from an array of neurons and use computers and algorithms to translate the signals into action. That could lead to artificial limbs that work like the real ones.It has been proved that people can actually use this system to switch a television on and off, to control the volume and to manipulate a prosthetic hand.
All of these developing technologies are fascinating and are sure to help millions of people, but what happens when these technologies are perfected, and prosthesis become viable replacements rather than just substitutes? What happens when this technology becomes available to people who don’t need it. Imagine athletes upgrading to prosthetic legs so they can run faster, jump higher? The option to change out body parts for artificial ones would certainly raise some red flags, especially in religious groups
[attachment=67141]
ABSTRACT
BrainGate was developed by the bio-tech company Cyberkinetics in 2003 in conjunction with the Department of Neuroscience at Brown University. The device was designed to help those who have lost control of their limbs, or other bodily functions. The computer chip, which is implanted into the brain, monitors brain activity in the patient and converts the intention of the user into computer commands. Currently the chip uses 100 hair-thin electrodes that 'hear' neurons firing in specific areas of the brain, for example, the area that controls arm movement. The activities are translated into electrically charged signals and are then sent and decoded using a program, thus moving the arm. According to the Cyberkinetics' website, two patients have been implanted with the BrainGate system.
The BrainGate Neural Interface System is currently the subject of a pilot clinical trial being conducted under an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) from the FDA. The system is designed to restore functionality for a limited, immobile group of severely motor-impaired individuals. It is expected that people using the BrainGate System will employ a personal computer as the gateway to a range of self-directed activities. These activities may extend beyond typical computer functions (e.g., communication) to include the control of objects in the environment such as a telephone, a television and lights.
The BrainGate System is based on Cyberkinetics' platform technology to sense, transmit, analyze and apply the language of neurons. The System consists of a sensor that is implanted on the motor cortex of the brain and a device that analyzes brain signals. The principle of operation behind the BrainGate System is that with intact brain function, brain signals are generated even though they are not sent to the arms, hands and legs. The signals are interpreted and translated into cursor movements, offering the user an alternate "BrainGate pathway" to control a computer with thought, just as individuals who have the ability to move their hands use a mouse.
Cyberkinetics is further developing the BrainGate System to potentially provide limb movement to people with severe motor disabilities. The goal of this development program would be to allow these individuals to one day use their own arms and hands again. Limb movement developments are currently at the research stage and are not available for use with the existing BrainGate System. In addition Cyberkinetics is developing products to allow for robotic control, such as a thought-controlled wheelchair.
In the future, the BrainGate System could be used by those individuals whose injuries are less severe. Next generation products may be able to provide an individual with the ability to control devices that allow breathing, bladder and bowel movements.
CYBERKINETICS
The idea of a machine that could read peoples’ minds has long been a farfetched and intriguing idea for the world of technology. However, this improbable development may be becoming more and more of a reality. Cyberkinetics Inc based in Foxboro, Mass. is developing a chip that can be implanted
The chip has just received FDA approval and has begun its clinical trial. It is the hope of Cyberkinetics Inc that the chip will allow patients to command a computer action by simply thinking about it.
Cyberkinetics Inc is one of the leading corporations in the field of brain computer interfaces. The company was established in 2001 in an effort to commercialize advances by Brown University scientists in the field of neurology. The chief executive of the company is Tim Surgenor, and he is a leading proponent in the development of direct brain connection technology.
Cyberkinetics Inc has dubbed its development of this product as the BrainGate System. This campaign is hopped to be the breakthrough technological advance in the field of computer interfacing. Not only does this system expect to aid individuals with motor impairments through supporting their use of the computer, but it also hopes to monitor the treatment of certain diseases, such as epilepsy and depression.
The BrainGate System has been under research and development for more than ten years at Brown University. CyberKinetics Inc has just recently launched a trial of this system in five severely disabled individuals. However, the system was first tested by Cyberkinetics founder, John Donoghue, on three rhesus monkeys. The system was successful with this monkey testing. One of the monkeys was able to move a computer cursor using his brain.
Other Companies
Cyberkinetics Inc is not the only company that is working on the development of direct brain connections. Similar efforts have been made by an Atlanta based company called Neural Signals as well as the New York State Department of Health under Dr. Jonathan Wolpaw.
Neural Signals has conducted its clinical trial and is hoping to make connections similar to that of Cyberkinetics. Dr. Wolpaw’s research focuses on the ability to train the mind and have it adapt to new patterns of cause and effect. Although great strides have been made in both of these efforts, it is believed that Cyberkinetics Inc will be the first to conduct a long term trial with more sophisticated devices
WHAT IS BRAINGATE
The Braingate program aims at developing a fast, reliable and inconspicuous connection between the brain of a severely disabled person and a personal computer.
The BrainGate Neural Interface Device is a proprietary brain computer interface that uses an internal sensor to detect brain activity and external processors that convert these brain signals into a computer-mediated output under the person’s own control. The BrainGate System is a hardware device that uses software. The sensor consists of a tiny chip, smaller than a baby asprin, which contains one hundred electrode sensors that each tap into a separate neuron. BrainGate senses, analyses, and transmits the data from the brain to an outside system. This allows the user to interact with the outside world in a more independent way. The ultimate goal of the BrainGate System development program is to create a safe, effective and unobtrusive universal operating system that will enable those with motor impairments to control a wide range of devices, including computers, assistive technologies and medical devices, by simply using their thoughts.
BrainGate contains a chip that is implanted on the surface of the motor cortex area of the brain. In the pilot version of the device, a cable connects the sensor to an external signal processor in a cart that contains three computers. The computers translate hard-to detect brain signals to create the communication output using custom decoding software. When the patient is connected to the system he or she can mentally move the cursor just like a mouse would do. John Donoghue, the chair of the Department of Neuroscience at Brown University, led the original project research and went on to co-found Cyberkinetics, where he is currently chief scientific officer overseeing the clinical trial. . The development of the BrainGate program is the culmination of 10 years of research in the academic laboratory at Brown University. Hugh Herr, another scientist, also helped in the development of a neural interface system. Herr became very passionate about the development of a technology that would give independence and movement back to people that were physically impaired. Herr lost both legs at a young age from frostbite. He then started research on combining both body and machine, his research has already made a significant impact for people that are physically challenged. He has helped in the development of many prosthetics.
Brain Gate Clinical Trials
Partnering with leading rehabilitation centers in Boston, Chicago and Providence, Cyber kinetics is currently recruiting patients to enroll in a pilot clinical trial of the Brain Gate Neural Interface System.
The Brain Gate System is designed to provide a means for people with severe motor impairment a new method to communicate with a computer directly with their thoughts. As an investigational device, the Brain Gate System is only offered through the clinical trial and is not commercially available
A BOON TO THE PARALYZED
It will now be possible for a patient with spinal cord injury to produce brain signals that relay the intention of moving the paralyzed limbs, as signals to an implanted sensor, which is then output as electronic impulses. These impulses enable the user to operate mechanical devices with the help of a computer cursor.
A report appearing in the July 13 issue of Nature includes the first published findings from an ongoing clinical trial of the Brain Gate Neural Interface System, a brain-computer interface device in the early stages of clinical testing at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and other institutions across the country.
"The broad question we are addressing is whether it's possible for someone with paralysis to use the activity of the motor cortex [the part of the brain responsible for motion] to control an external device," says Leigh Hochberg, MD, PhD, a neurologist at MGH, Spaulding and Brigham and Women's Hospital and lead author of the Nature paper. "There has been a question of how the function of the cortex might change after it was disconnected from the rest of the body by damage to the spinal cord. We're finding that, even years after spinal cord injury, the same signals that originally controlled a limb are available and can be utilized."
Manufactured by Cyber kinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc., of Foxborough, Mass., the Brain Gate System consists of an internal sensor to detect brain cell activity and external processors that convert brain impulses into computerized signals. Two clinical trials are currently underway to evaluate the system's safety and feasibility for detecting and translating brain activity from patients with paralysis resulting from spinal cord injury, brain stem stroke or muscular dystrophy and patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease). John Donoghue, PhD, a neuroscience professor and director of the Brain Science Program at Brown University and the senior author of the Nature paper, is a co-founder of Cyber kinetics
BRAIN-MACHINE INTERFACE
A brain-machine interface (BMI), sometimes called a direct neural interface or a brain-machine interface, is a direct communication pathway between a human or animal brain (or brain cell culture) and an external device. In one-way BMIs, computers either accept commands from the brain or send signals to it (for example, to restore vision) but not both.[1] Two-way BMIs would allow brains and external devices to exchange information in both directions but have yet to be successfully implanted in animals or humans.
The Electric Brain
The reason a BCI works at all is because of the way our brains function. Our brains are filled with neurons, individual nerve cells connected to one another by dendrites and axons. Every time we think, move, feel or remember something, our neurons are at work. That work is carried out by small electric signals that zip from neuron to neuron as fast as 250 mph [source: Walker]. The signals are generated by differences in electric potential carried by ions on the membrane of each neuron.
Although the paths the signals take are insulated by something called myelin, some of the electric signal escapes. Scientists can detect those signals, interpret what they mean and use them to direct a device of some kind. It can also work the other way around. For example, researchers could figure out what signals are sent to the brain by the optic nerve when someone sees the color red. They could rig a camera that would send those exact
BMI Applications
One of the most exciting areas of BMI research is the development of devices that can be controlled by thoughts. Some of the applications of this technology may seem frivolous, such as the ability to control a video game by thought. If you think a remote control is convenient, imagine changing channels with your mind.
However, there's a bigger picture -- devices that would allow severely disabled people to function independently. For a quadriplegic, something as basic as controlling a computer cursor via mental commands would represent a revolutionary improvement in quality of life. But how do we turn those tiny voltage measurements into the movement of a robotic arm?
Early research used monkeys with implanted electrodes. The monkeys used a joystick to control a robotic arm. Scientists measured the signals coming from the electrodes. Eventually, they changed the controls so that the robotic arm was being controlled only by the signals coming form the electrodes, not the joystick.
Competitive Advantage
The BrainGate Neural Interface System is being designed to one day allow the user to interface with a computer and/or other devices at a level of speed, accuracy and precision that is comparable to, or even faster than, what is possible with the hands of a non-disabled person. The BrainGate System may offer substantial improvement over existing assistive technologies.
Currently available assistive devices have significant limitations for both the person in need and the caregiver. For example, even simple switches must be adjusted frequently, a process that can be time consuming. In addition, these devices are often obtrusive and may prevent the user from being able to simultaneously use the device and at the same time establish eye contact or carry on conversations with others.
Potential advantages of the BrainGate System over other muscle driven or brain-based computer interface approaches include: its potential to interface with a computer without weeks or months of training; its potential to be used in an interactive environment, where the user's ability to operate the device is not affected by their speech, eye movements or ambient noise; and the ability to provide significantly more usefulness and utility than other approaches by connecting directly to the part of the brain that controls hand movement and gestures.
Conclusion
Brain gate technology has proven to be a solution not only for the quadriplegics but it goes far beyond that . It is an early step towards learning to read signals from an array of neurons and use computers and algorithms to translate the signals into action. That could lead to artificial limbs that work like the real ones.It has been proved that people can actually use this system to switch a television on and off, to control the volume and to manipulate a prosthetic hand.
All of these developing technologies are fascinating and are sure to help millions of people, but what happens when these technologies are perfected, and prosthesis become viable replacements rather than just substitutes? What happens when this technology becomes available to people who don’t need it. Imagine athletes upgrading to prosthetic legs so they can run faster, jump higher? The option to change out body parts for artificial ones would certainly raise some red flags, especially in religious groups