IS THERE A GENTLER WAY TO GET CLEAR SIGNALS, WITHOUT CUTTING INTO THE SKULL?

There is a less dramatic option, although so far it has only been tested on sheep. Nicholas Opie and colleagues at the University of Melbourne, Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health are developing a device called a stentrode, which is so tiny it can sit within a human blood vessel. Surgeons insert a slim, flexible stent into a blood vessel in the groin, then guide the device up through the body and into the motor cortex, the brain’s movement command centre. There, the stentrode sits in a blood vessel, collecting signals 24/7.

Ultimately, the researchers want the stentrode to ‘speak to’ an exoskeleton, returning mobility to people who have lost the use of their limbs. Paraplegic or quadriplegic patients — probably young people who have been relatively recently injured — might be asked to test the device in Melbourne as soon as late 2017.

It might also one day be possible for the stentrode to deliver feedback the other way, to the brain’s sensory cortex. Allowing people using bionic limbs to ‘feel’ what they are touching would open many more treatment possibilities. “If you want to pick up an egg, you don’t want to squeeze too hard, so getting some feedback about how much pressure you’re applying with your robot hand is going to matter a lot,” says David Grayden, an electrical engineer on the project.

SO WILL WE ALL SOON GET MIND-CONTROLLED DEVICES?

If the human trial succeeds, the stentrode could be commercially available in about six years. But while a stent is less invasive than skull surgery, it still requires inserting a device into your brain. The safety trade-off may well be worthwhile for people who stand to regain bodily movement, says Grayden, but it’s hard for him to foresee a day when people will implant electrodes solely for convenience.

“Just that process of putting it in is a dangerous thing to do. You are still invading the body and you’d be wanting to make sure that the benefit outweighs the risk,” he says. The quest for more accurate, less invasive alternatives will no doubt continue. But it might be a while before we’re sprinting to work in a mind-controlled exoskeleton.

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