[extropy-chat] Moving brain implant seeks out signals

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

A device that automatically moves electrodes through the brain to seek out
the strongest signals is taking the idea of neural implants to a new level.
Scary as this sounds, its developers at the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena say devices like this will be essential if brain
implants are ever going to work.
Implants could one day help people who are paralysed or unable to
communicate because of spinal injury or conditions such as amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease). Electrodes implanted in the brain
could, in principle, pick up neural signals and convey them to a prosthetic
arm or a computer cursor.
But there is a problem. Implanted electrodes are usually unable to sense
consistent neuronal signals for more than a few months, according to Igor
Fineman, a neurosurgeon at the Huntington Hospital, also in Pasadena.
To get around these problems, Joel Burdick and Richard Andersen at Caltech
have developed a device in which the electrodes sense where the strongest
signal is coming from, and move towards it. Their prototype, which is
mounted on the skull, uses piezoelectric motors to move four electrodes
independently of each other in 1-micrometre increments.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996645