[extropy-chat] Re: Thinking is doing with Cyborg Technology

[Neil Halelamien]

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 11:00:16 -0700, extropy-chat-request at lists.extropy.org 
Joseph Bloch <jbloch at humanenhancement.com>wrote:
> Unfortunately, the segment is only available as an audio file; I don't
> see a full transcript on the website. I heard it this morning, and
> remember that it was absolutely fascinating (paralyzed guy controls a
> computer cursor with brainwaves; they want to hook it up to a robotic
> arm next), but naturally it ended with the usual vague-but-ominous
> "there are places mankind was not meant to tread" crap.

More details on the work of John Donoghue (the researcher mentioned in
the segment) are available on his lab's web site:

http://donoghue.neuro.brown.edu/

Donoghue's work, which records motor signals from primary motor
cortex, is certainly cool, but I'm personally biased towards the work
of Richard Andersen's lab, which records cognitive-level reach goals
from posterior parietal cortex. Here are links to a presentation and
overview paper on the topic:

http://www.vis.caltech.edu/neural_prosthetics/index.html
http://www.vis.caltech.edu/PDFs%20of%20journal%20articles/Trends_cognitive_neurosci/2004%2011-01%20TICS%20Cognitive%20Neural%20Prosthetics.pdf

Andersen's lab has also been collaborating with the robotics and
micro-electromechanical labs here to put together movable probes which
automatically seek out neurons and adjust themselves when the signal
degrades. Very neat stuff.

-- Neil