It was definitely the headline that got me reading. “Devices that read human thought now possible” reported the San Francisco Herald (10 November 2003), referring to studies presented at the past Society for Neuroscience meeting. Happily, my initial dismay at having missed the poster subsided when I discovered that the story was actually on brain–machine interfaces that harness neuronal activity to guide mechanical limbs. Such interfaces had already been used in monkeys, and the newspaper, prompted by preliminary results on patients with Parkinson's disease, discussed the possibility of using them in people.

Relieved by the fact that my secret thoughts will remain private for now, my attention turned to the financial twist of the story. On the one hand, Miguel Nicolelis, a leader in this field, is quoted as saying “I have no interests in any business ... I want to have fun; I don't want to make money. What I am very afraid of is that people who really want to make a buck out of this will be rushing into the clinical thing.” On the other, John Donaghue, another expert on this area, pointed out that he and his colleagues “realized the only way to fully exploit the technology was to form a company capable of raising the money needed to carry out very expensive clinical studies”. Cyberkinetics Inc. is the result of their realization.

Regardless of whose side you are on, a growing number of neuroscientists are becoming aware of the financial implications of what they do in the lab, and spend more time with their colleagues over at the Technology Transfer Office. Although many of them are surely driven by their desire to foster technological progress, I suspect we would not need a mind-reading device to spot the phrase 'lucrative patent' in their thoughts.