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Neuroscience

Converting thoughts into action

Nature volume 442, pages 141–142 (2006)Cite this article

There is a clear need to help people who have brain or spinal-cord damage to communicate and interact with the outside world. Progress to that end is being made with brain-implantation technology.

Although it may someday be possible to reconnect damaged neural pathways by directing the regrowth of neurons, neuroprosthetics provide another potential approach to permit individuals with severe neurological injuries to interact with the environment. Damage to the nervous system means these individuals lose their motor control — that is, they can no longer directly control their muscles. Neuroprosthetics aim to bypass this damage by recording brain activity that reflects the individual's motor intentions. These signals are then used either to reanimate paralysed muscles using electrical stimulation, or to control physical devices directly, such as artificial limbs, computer cursors or wheelchairs. Several different approaches have been developed ranging from non-implantable technologies that record electroencephalographic (EEG) activity using removable electrodes placed on the scalp surface3, to implantable devices that use microelectrodes to detect the activities of individual neurons4,5,6,7.

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  1. Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University, Kingston, K7L 3N6, Ontario, Canada

    Stephen H. Scott

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  1. Stephen H. Scott
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Scott, S. Converting thoughts into action. Nature 442, 141–142 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/442141a

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