Brain-computer implant has passed 1000-day milestone

[n2doc]

3:36 25 March 2011

A paralysed woman was still able to accurately control a computer cursor with her thoughts 1000 days after having a tiny electronic device implanted in her brain, say the researchers who devised the system. The achievement demonstrates the longevity of brain-machine implants.

The woman, for whom the researchers use the pseudonym S3, had a brainstem stroke in the mid-1990s that caused tetraplegia - paralysis of all four limbs and the vocal cords.

In 2005, researchers from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, the Providence VA Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston implanted a tiny silicon electrode array the size of a small aspirin into S3's brain to help her communicate better with the outside world.

The electrode array is part of the team's BrainGate system, which includes a combination of hardware and software that directly senses the electrical signals produced by neurons in the brain which control the planning of movement.

more

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/03/power-of-thought-neural-implan.html

[TheWraith]

1. This is kind of awesome.

And someday, it may extend to being able to create artificial limbs which respond to the brain's impulses like normal limbs do; or possibly being able to "bypass" damaged spinal cord connections in order to reestablish motor control of the body.

[qazplm]

2. so this brings up the question

if we are ever able to replace a single neuron with a computer chip, how many neurons can you replace before you ceases to be you?

[phantom power]

3. If you replace them all one-by-one, *does* it cease to be you?

:evilgrin:

[Odin2005]

5. Nope.

We are a pattern, not a thing, the atoms in our bodies are constantly being replaced.

[Nihil]

6. Merely a passing wave in the fabric of reality ...

> We are a pattern, not a thing, the atoms in our bodies are constantly being replaced.

... originating with a "birth" event (the "stone dropping into the pool") and
proceeding outwards, growing in some dimensions whilst shrinking in others,
until we either fade away (through the lack of energy) or abruptly hit a boundary
(at which point only the reflections & refractions of the original continue to
influence the medium).

:hi:

[qazplm]

7. we don't grow new neurons

admittedly the patterns set up change somewhat sure, but at the end of the day, the neurons don't, they just make new connections.

So your argument is that if we could simply replicate the "pattern" whatever that is, into a computer, that we'd still be we, and not a copy, but the real thing?

I'm not sure that's true and yet not sure it isn't true.

[Phoonzang]

4. If "it" still thinks it's you, then it's you.

I think.