PRAVDA – February 2, 2017: Scientists have created a new “neurochip” that can literally read the minds of those who were paralyzed as a result of car accidents or serious illnesses.
Symptoms of the “locked-in syndrome” are reminiscent of what happens to the body and brain of people in a coma or in a vegetative state. Until recently, neuroscientists believed that paralyzed individuals could not maintain mental activity, set goals and solve them.
Niels Birbaumer of the University of Tübingen (Germany) and his colleagues were experimenting with four volunteers in last stages of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), to figure out whether it was possible to establish connection with paralyzed patients with the help of so-called neurochips and “brain-computer” interfaces – the system that directly reads brain signals and converts them into a computer-friendly language.
The article published in PLOS Biology journal says that the researchers used two devices in their study: a magnetic resonance imaging machine to observe the activity of different parts of the cortex and deep layers of the brain, and an infrared spectroscope to monitor the activity of certain groups of nerve cells by their oxygen consumption. Link-1: Read Complete Article ; Link-2: Read PLOS.ORG Journal Article
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