Mind over video game
Using thought alone and with some electrodes placed on the surface of the brain, four volunteers were able to control a video game, U.S. researchers reported Monday.
Simply by thinking the word "move", the volunteers played the simple video game, the researchers reported.
"We are using pure imagination. These people are not moving their limbs," said Dr. Eric Leuthardt, a neurosurgeon at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis who worked on the study.
Their findings add to work being done at several centers and are aimed at finding ways to help people control computers or machines using brainpower alone. Potentially, people paralyzed by disease or accidents could use such devices to work, read, write and even possibly to move around.
Leuthardt said they tested four patients with epilepsy.
"These electrodes are placed on peoples' brains on a routine basis for seizure localization," Leuthardt said in a telephone interview.
The patients have their skulls opened and the electrodes placed on the surface of the brain to find out where their seizures are originating, so the connections in that area can be cut in the hope of a cure.
"We piggy-backed our study on that," Leuthardt said.
