Strictly speaking, they have shown that brain activity in response to spoken instructions can be detected and linked to a computer, and some interesting observations about the interactions among the various brain structures involved. Thoughts are an inference. BTW -- monkeys can do it to. Can they think?
On Jun 12, 2013, at 5:53 AM, Mike Palij wrote: > Researchers at the University of Washington have shown that after > implanting electrodes into human brains, the persons with the implants > were able to learn how to move a cursor on a computer screen just > with their thoughts. The UW has posted this press release describing > the research in some detail; see: > http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/06/11/new-tasks-become-as-simple-as-waving-a-hand-with-brain-computer-interfaces/ > And the website CNET has a popular media article that is a closer > approximation to everyday English here: > http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57588839-76/mind-controlled-cursor-may-be-easier-than-previously-thought/ > > For those who are hardcore and settle for nothing but the original > source, the research was published in the Proceedings of the National > Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and it is available online prior to its > paper publication; see: > http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/06/05/1221127110 > > What I think is really intriguing is the process that seems to be going on > when one is learning the basic action. The CNET article expresses this > best: > > NOTE: participants were persons with severe epilepsy. > > |While physicians were studying neuro activity to investigate seizure > |signals, a separate team of bioengineers was simultaneously on the > |lookout for exactly how the brains of the seven volunteers behaved > |as they learned to move a cursor using their thoughts alone. It turns > |out that, in as few as 10 minutes, activity went from being centered > |on the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with learning new skills, > |to areas seen during more automatic functions, such as waving one's > |hand or kicking a ball. > | > |In other words, in just a matter of minutes these brains behaved as > |if they had already mastered these Jedi mind tricks. > | > |"What we're seeing is that practice makes perfect with these tasks," > |Rajesh Rao, a UW professor of computer science and engineering > |and a senior researcher involved in the study, said in a school news > |release. "There's a lot of engagement of the brain's cognitive resources > |at the very beginning, but as you get better at the task, those resources > |aren't needed anymore and the brain is freed up." > | > |Rao and colleagues, who call this "distributed cortical adaptation," > |published their findings online Monday in the Proceedings of the > |National Academy of Sciences. They say that the electrodes on the > |volunteers' brains picked up the signals that directed the cursor to > |move and sent them to an amplifier and then laptop for analysis, > |which in just 40 milliseconds resulted in updated cursor movement > |on the screen. > > Now what I find fascinating is not that one can move a cursor with one's > thoughts but that the process of learning how to do such an action first > starts in the prefrontal cortex (where a cognitive "program" is probably > assembled that will layout what needs to be done) and then this information > is sent to what I assume are the somatosensory areas and the temporal > lobe (see the figures in the CNET article -- it is a larger version of the > image provided in the UW press release). I haven't read the PNAS > article yet so my explanation above may be a little off but the notion that > learning an action process starts in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and then is > transferred to another brain area (freeing up resources in the PFC) is > interesting and one wonders whether this works in other types of processes > (e.g., I have always had problems with claims that certain types of > working memory were located in specific cells in the PFC, like the feature > detectors in the occipital cortex -- I though that that was just too much > processing for a single cell to do). > > -Mike Palij > New York University > m...@nyu.edu Paul Brandon Emeritus Professor of Psychology Minnesota State University, Mankato pkbra...@hickorytech.net --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=26028 or send a blank email to leave-26028-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
