‘Wearable robot’ arm improves performance of brain-controlled device

The performance of a brain-machine interface designed to help paralyzed subjects move objects with their thoughts is improved with the addition of a robotic arm that provides sensory feedback, a new study from the University of Chicago finds.

Devices that translate brain activity into the movement of a computer cursor or an external robotic arm have already proven successful in humans. But in these early systems, vision was the only tool a subject could use to help control the motion.

Adding a robot arm that provided kinesthetic information about movement and position in space improved the performance of monkeys using a brain-machine interface in a study published today in The Journal of Neuroscience. Incorporating this sense may improve the design of “wearable robots” to help patients with spinal cord injuries, researchers said.

Aided by a robotic exoskeleton, a monkey can hit the target faster and more directly 

(Hatsopoulos, et al. The Journal of Neuroscience)

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A Terminator-style contact-lens display

Bringing us a step closer to a Terminator-style augmented-reality display, University of Washington engineers have constructed an experimental contact lens with a single-pixel embedded light-emitting diode (LED) and tested it in a rabbit.

The LED lights up when it receives energy from a remote radio frequency transmission, picked up by an antenna around the edge and collected via a silicon power harvesting and radio integrated circuit.

Single-pixel wireless contact lens display (credit: University of Washington/Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering)

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Awareness in Vegetative Patients

Three brain injury patients diagnosed as being in a vegetative state—meaning they do not respond to their environment—may actually be conscious. Using EEG (electroencephalography) to measure their brain activity, researchers found that the patients could follow simple commands.

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Fingertip Microscope Can Peek Inside a Moving Animal

An inexpensive microscope about the size of a gumdrop could allow scientists to peer into the inner workings of living, moving animals much more easily. The device is small and light enough—it weighs less than two grams—to be mounted atop a rodent's head, where it can capture the activity of up to 200 individual brain cells as the animal explores its environment. The device could help scientists learn how the brain directs movement.

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Reconstructing Visual Experiences from Brain Activity Evoked by Natural Movies

Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and computational models, UC Berkeley researchers have succeeded in decoding and reconstructing people’s dynamic visual experiences – in this case, watching Hollywood movie trailers.

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An Objective Way to Measure Pain

Researchers found that by pairing functional MRI (fMRI) with a machine-learning algorithm, they could detect specific patterns of brain activity that predicted whether someone was experiencing pain or not.

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Word association with brain scans

In an effort to understand what happens in the brain when a person reads or considers such abstract ideas as love or justice, Princeton researchers have for the first time matched images of brain activity with categories of words related to the concepts a person is thinking about. The results could lead to a better understanding of how people consider meaning and context when reading or thinking.

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The Petri Dish Gets a Makeover

A nanopore membrane creates faster, surer cultures for everything from hospital diagnostics to water-quality checks. A new type of diagnostic could let hospital laboratories identify the presence of dangerous bacteria up to five times faster than conventional methods. The test could reduce unnecessary antibiotic use and provide more reliable water-quality test results. The key to the process is a membrane with nanosized pores, which enable rapid growth and identification of live organisms.

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Stick-On Electronic Tattoos

Researchers have made stretchable, ultrathin electronics that cling to skin like a temporary tattoo and can measure electrical activity from the body. These electronic tattoos could allow doctors to diagnose and monitor conditions like heart arrhythmia or sleep disorders noninvasively.

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Social deficits associated with autism, schizophrenia induced in mice

Researchers used light to switch on, and then switch off, social-behavior deficits in mice that resemble those seen in people with autism and schizophrenia, thanks to a technology that allows scientists to precisely manipulate nerve activity in the brain. In synchrony with this experimentally induced socially aberrant behavior, the mice exhibited a brain-wave pattern called gamma oscillation that has been associated with autism and schizophrenia in humans, the researchers say.

The findings, published online in Nature on July 27, lend credence to a hypothesis that has been long floated but hard to test, until now. They mark the first demonstration, the researchers said, that elevating the brain’s susceptibility to stimulation can produce social deficits resembling those of autism and schizophrenia, and that then restoring the balance eases those symptoms.

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