Brain implant controls computer

Citation

Rudall, B.H. (1999), "Brain implant controls computer", Kybernetes, Vol. 28 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.1999.06728aaa.001

Brain implant controls computer

Keywords Brain, Cybernetics, R&D, Robotics, Technological developments

Abstract Gives reports and surveys of selected current research and developments in systems and cybernetics. They include: Brain implants control computer, Cyber-humans, Biocybernetics, Image recognition systems, Robotics and Cybernetics, Sociocybernetics, Cybernetics in the UK.

Brain implant controls computer

Human-computer interaction by thought

At the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics World Congress held in Bucharest in August 1996 experiments concerning the control of computer systems using the thought processes of the human brain were discusssed. The director of the WOSC's Norbert Wiener Instituteoutlined some of the latest work in the field and introduced some of the research projects that had currently been successful. Further reports in this journal, Kybernetes, Vol. 25 No.9, l996, pp. 5-6, gave details of the developments. The application of these advances to studies of human-machine interfaces will undoubtedly prove to be of very great importance. In these reports communication between the human and the machine were through devices which had the ability to recognise certain thought waves emanating from parts of the brain.

Reports from the University of Atlanta, Georgia, USA, now, however, describe the direct communication between the brain and a computer by using electrode implants. This, it is claimed, is the first time that such a connection has been made directly in the brain rather than with nerves in the spine or limbs.

New project for brain implants

This new project is led by Dr Roy Bakay of Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, who, with his research team, has developed the implants. The results of their work so far means that a man has been able to control a computer by thought alone after receiving an electronic implant that fused with his brain cells. Laboratories worldwide are working on such implants in the brain, but the only reported devices that have been licensed for use so far are bionic ears for the profoundly deaf and chips that can control the tremor caused by Parkinson's disease.

Emory implants

The implants from Emory University, it is claimed, go a great deal further. They are made up of two hollow cones, each about the size of a ball-point pen's tip, which are placed in the brain's motor cortex, which controls the body's movements. The cones are covered with chemicals that are designed to encourage nerve growth. These, we are told, were extracted from the patient's knees. Once in position, the nerve cells grow into cones and attach themselves to tiny electrodes inside. The choice of the most appropriate location of each cone is determined by monitoring the patient's brain, using scanners and identifying the most active regions.

When the cones have been located and are surrounded by nerve cells, the subject is asked to think about moving some part of the body and signals from the electrodes are picked up by a small transmitter-receiver, amplified, and used to control a computer. This part of the operation illustrates one of the problems that are encountered in such a pioneering process. It depends, we are told, on which nerves grow into the cones, so that each patient may have to think about moving a different part of the body to achieve the same effect. This means that the patients involved have to be trained. This is done by listening to a buzzer which becomes faster and louder when they are thinking along the right lines.

The implants have already enabled patients to move a computer screen cursor simply by their thinking about moving a part of their body. Communication can then take place by pointing the cursor at different icons. The aim is, of course, to develop the system so that a human will be able to communicate complex ideas just by thinking about them. The research team leader Dr Bakay says that: "If you can run a computer, you can talk to the world". He also believes that as a result of their experiments: "controlling the cursor soon becomes second nature".

Patient case histories

Reporting recently in Seattle, USA, at theCongress of Neurological Surgeons, DrRoy Bakay said that he had performed two operations in which he had persuaded the patient's brain cells to grow into implants and then link up with its electronics.

One of the patients was described as a 53 year old man, called J.R., who was almost totally paralysed by a stroke. He is dependent, Dr Bakay said, on a ventilator and cannot speak, although he is fully alert and intelligent and knows everything that is going on around him. Once he received the implant he could control a cursor on a computer screen and point to different icons, triggering a computer voice to make comments such as "I'm thirsty". Now he can select such phrases as "see you soon", which is his favorite we are told, and is followed by "nice talking with you".

A second patient, who has since died, had motor neurone disease and was given the implants 18 months ago. A report in the New Scientist about the two patients says that they were taught very simple commands, with one cone being used to move the cursor up and down and the other from left to right. If they could give more commands, disabled people could use them to make the computer speak for them. But Dr Bakay warns that this could be some years away. To reach this stage, the New Scientist says it has taken some eight years of research.

Assessments of the project

Despite Dr Bakay's statement that we should not expect immediate results he has secured funding from the US National Institute of Health, to continue the research with three more patients. Professor Kevin Warwick of the Cybernetics Department, Reading University, UK, says that:

If they have actually gone into the brain and picked up signals with electrodes that is very new. It is another very exciting step (UK's Daily Telegraph, 15 October 1998).

He added that one of the major obstacles to the production of such a cyber-human had been the moral issue of tampering with the brain of a healthy person. His research on cyber-humans is discussed in our next section.

Dr John Cavanagh of the International Spinal Research Trust, Cheshunt, Herts, UK, said that:

If these implants can be developed then they could do an enormous amount to alleviate many illnesses.

The British Telecom Laboratories, Ipswich, UK, have also done a great deal of research into implantable chips. This work has included a possible memory chip which would take data from the eye and store it in a computer for processing. The head of research at the laboratories, Dr Peter Cochrane, speaking to the UK's London Times 15 October 1998 says that:

There is a raft of wonderful benefits to bringing chips and circuits inside human beings.

There is no doubt that the prospects for human-machine interactions have improved considerably if the endeavours of these research groups prove successful. Linking humans and computers directly through brain implants opens up new horizons for scientists. But, as the researchers are careful to point out, these are still early days in projects and studies that are bound to take many years before their fruits are readily available to the world at large.