Monkeys in wheelchairs—it sounds like a Dr. Seuss book, but it’s a real-life scientific study. The experiment with freewheeling primates may help people with arm and leg paralysis get moving again.
Before now, many electric wheelchair users needed complex joystick controls for their chairs. People without use of their arms or hands were sometimes unable to move their chairs at all.
Researchers from Duke University conducted a groundbreaking experiment. They implanted wireless devices into monkeys’ brains. The monkeys learned to travel across a room using only mind power.
For years “brain-machine interfaces,” or BMIs, have helped disabled persons control artificial arms and legs. One such device is the electroencephalograph (EEG). An EEG detects brain activity. Scientists place metal discs with thin wires on a human (or monkey!) scalp. The discs send signals to a computer. EEGs work. But the user’s head must be covered with metal and wires—not exactly user friendly. So scientists have been working toward a direct brain-to-machine connection.
The new implant system records electric signals in the brain and decodes them. It converts the signals into computer commands to guide wheelchair movements.
Researchers placed hundreds of ultra-thin microfilaments inside the brains of two rhesus monkeys. The wires do not seem to damage the brain. In fact, they stick to brain tissue and move with it.
At first, robotic wheelchairs drove the monkeys to and from a bowl of grapes. Scientists learned what happened in the monkeys’ brains as the chair moved toward the grapes. Monkeys must really love grapes, because they soon began steering the chairs toward the fruit themselves—using only their minds. The implants turned their thoughts into movement.
The longer the monkeys used their brains to get to the fruit, the better “drivers” they became. Researcher Miguel Nicolelis marveled at the brain’s flexibility in adapting to the wheelchair. He said, “In essence the wheelchair is becoming part of the monkey’s body.”
Scientists hope to test the implants with humans soon. They believe the system will help severely disabled persons. It could allow them to control “smart” household features like sound, temperature, and lighting.
The monkey brain study is amazing. How much more amazing must be the human mind! For humans alone are a unique reflection of God’s own image. (Genesis 1:27)
