By Pure Thought Alone : The Development of the First Cognitive Neural Prosthesis

his feat has been achieved through groundbreaking interdisciplinary research and technology that includes advances in neuroscience, engineering, neurosurgery, and neural informatics. Along with many colleagues, Richard Andersen, James G. Boswell Professor of Neuroscience, Joel Burdick, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering, and YuChong Tai, Professor of Electrical Engineering, have developed proof-of-concept neural prostheses and the associated technology that will someday allow use of these devices by humans. A neural prosthesis is a direct brain interface that enables a primate, via the use of surgically implanted electrode arrays and associated computer algorithms, to control external electromechanical devices by pure thought alone. The first beneficiaries of such technology are likely to be patients with spinal cord damage, peripheral nerve disease, or ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease). In the United States alone, there are 2.28 million cases T