Recall The Matrix . Neo asks Trinity if she can take flight a helicopter . She ca n’t . This has happen to most of us . But then , she makes a speech sound call to Tank , who upload the noesis of helicopter flight forthwith into her brain .
I secernate you this because a research worker at the University of Rochester implied to me that there is a future tense where this might be potential . They ’ve done nothing like it yet — they’ve trained monkeys to associate external brain stimulations with body process like pushing a button and spinning a ball . But even teaching the Einstein things less exciting than helicopter flight could be important for humans .
“ Suppose you had a stroke so that you still figure reddish and green traffic lights . you could still move your ramification to ill-use on the throttle or the bracken , but the connections between those thing got discerp , ” University of Rochester neurologist Marc Schieber say Gizmodo . “ Maybe you could reestablish communication over that link . ”
The researchers make with a pair of monkeys rail to operate a sappy looking scamp control panel , with buttons , lever and a globe to turn . ab initio , the scamp would know to perform a task when down lights illume up next to it . But the research worker easy taught the rascal to consort the lights and job with four different , flyspeck genius stimulation on the premotor lens cortex . They published the resolution today in the diary Neuron .
The premotor cortex is a complex part of the brain , one not full understood , that work sort of like a C.P.U. — it use up inputs from sight and touch sensation and translate it into movement for the motor cerebral mantle to execute . In this case , the monkeys eventually get word to link up the stimulation with the labor without the light . The researchers could also retrain the monkey to associate the stimulations with unlike actions .
human have poked and prodded plenty of human and scalawag brain , Schieber pointed out , and there ’s still a whole lot to learn . One of the paper ’s reader asked the scientist to ensure that they were n’t just invoking muscularity response ( they showed that they were n’t ) . But it ’s hard to say what precisely the scamp felt . former workhas shown that stimulating the premotor cortex gave humans a desire to move , even if motion did n’t occur . Schieber equate it to experience to press the natural gas when you see a green light .
patently there ’s more oeuvre to do — this is just two monkeys , after all . The researchers also desire to take care at whether they can take aim monkeys base on stimulant in the rest of the brain , and whether stimulation elsewhere would elicit the same response .
But in the long terminus , the team sees a place they could provide support for shot victims . “ Perhaps you may expend existing head electronic computer interface technology to tape upriver from the visual region , ” explained study author Kevin Mazurek at Rochester , “ and apply that selective information to bypass damage areas of the brain . ”
[ Neuron ]
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