At 11:33 PM 10/24/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Tiny implant enables paralyzed U.S. man to control computer with thoughts
>
>ATLANTA (October 23, 1998 11:56 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - A
>paralyzed Georgia man who received a tiny brain implant has become the first
>human to control a computer using only his thoughts.
>
>Known only by his initials, J.R., the 53-year-old man was the second
person to
>receive the implant, about the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen, but only
>the first to successfully communicate with a computer using his thoughts, Roy
>Bakay, who developed the implant with Phillip Kennedy, told Reuters late
>Thursday.
>
>"What we've done is enabled a patient who was unable to move his limbs or
>speak to communicate through a computer," Bakay, an Emory University
>researcher, said. "We have him think about movement. This sends a signal to a
>receiving unit in his scalp, which sends a message to the computer screen."
>
>"It's like operating an on/off switch." he said. "The person thinks about the
>activity, electrical activity in his brain increases and sends a message to
>control the cursor." The implants consist of two tiny hollow glass cones
>coated with neurotropic chemicals extracted from the recipients' peripheral
>nerves. The chemicals encourage nerves to grow into the cones, penetrating
the
>glass, Bakay said.
>
>"This puts the cells inside the cone so it keeps the cells going for a very
>long time. It is critical to train these cells in a stable environment," he
>said. "The nerve tissue grows into the cone and forms contacts or synapses.
>
>"It's those signals that we pick up. It's like having a little piece of
>isolated brain within the glass cone. We are able to run electrical activity
>off of that."
>
>Although Bakay said the research, which began 12 years ago, is in its
infancy,
>future steps may include training "a whole series of cells to do things.
There
>is tremendous potential."
>
>He said the goal is to improve a recipient's ability at the computer so he
>would be able to type letters and send e-mail. "We'd like to get them on the
>Internet and open communications to the rest of the world, and vice versa.
>
>"After that, we'd like for them to use the computer to control their
>environments, turn lights on and off, adjust a bed, call an attendant, turn
>the TV on or off. Finally, we hope they will be able to run prosthetic
>devices, wheelchairs, even prosthetic limbs."
>
>Bakay and Kennedy decided to use glass cones because metal "pokes holes into
>cells and they die," he said.
>
>The two people who have received the implants were both very ill, Bakay said.
>
>The first recipient died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's
>disease) before she could be trained to control the computer cursor, he said.
>
>J.R. is also in poor health, hospitalized at the U.S. Veterans Affairs
Medical
>Center in Decatur, Georgia, near Atlanta. A massive stroke paralyzed him and
>left him on a ventilator.
>
>Bakay said the first recipient was "only able to move her eyes up and down
and
>sideways a little bit," but died three months after receiving the implant.
>
>"She was able to prove all our basic premises for us," Bakay said. "She
helped
>us identify the cells we were looking for in this project."
>
>The prognosis for the second patient, who has mastered such simple computer
>commands as up, down, left and right, remains uncertain. Bakay said he was
>taken to a hospital intensive care unit Wednesday night after developing
>respiratory problems.
>
>"When he gets sick he can't work," Bakay said. "The mind doesn't function
>well. It's difficult working with him when he is at his best, but we're
>learning a lot from this fellow."
>
>Bakay said a third recipient likely would be chosen next year after he and
>Kennedy fully understand how much the current subject can accomplish. But he
>said the project has very limited financing.
>
>Bakay and Kennedy experimented first with monkeys at Yerkes Regional Primate
>Center in Atlanta, then won permission from the U.S. Food and Drug
>Administration to try the implants on three human recipients.
>
>The project's biggest impediment has been money.
>
>"Dr. Kennedy and I are two overworked clinicians who still have patients to
>see," Bakay said. "We need some help. We are hoping some venture capitalist
>will be interested."
>
>Copyright 1998 Nando.net
>Copyright 1998 Reuters News Service
>
>janet paterson - 51 now / 41 dx / 37 onset - almonte/ontario/canada
>http://www.newcountry.nu/pd/members/janet/
>[log in to unmask]
> you know sis i have tried to do things by using my mind some times i
could move things or get people tto look at me not what you would call
susceful but i do belive mind over matter crazy world
I.Y.Q.
