A paper in Nature on one man’s success at controlling a computer cursor, a robot arm, and by some reports even playing Pong thanks to an implanted brain sensor and a lot of computers is getting plenty of press today. The man, who has since had the sensor removed after its effect faded, is a quadriplegic due to a knife in the neck during a beach brawl. His story of his test of the brain-reading machine has been told before, sometimes at feature length. The company that is working on the so-called BrainGate system has previously disclosed bits of progress too. But a cover story in Nature summons a crowd. Authors are from Harvard, Brown, and from Cyberkinetics, the company the makes the gadget and in which several university authors are deeply involved.
Many reporters went with the info in the journal and most recent releases by reporting just two patients tested so far — one of whom did not have great success with the system. The SF Chronicle’s Sabin Russell quotes a neuroscientist at Duke who slams the study in Nature as “a lot of hype” largely because it reports only one case. USA Today’s Dan Vergano finds the same critic. Other reporters say the count has gone a bit higher, presumably since the Nature paper was submitted. Ron Kotulak at Chicago Tribune says two patients including the one in Nature are able to control cursors and the like while talking, and another, with the help of a BrainGate implant, uses thought to type messages. Plus, he reports, work is underway at Case Western University to get the brain signals straight to the patient’s own muscles. Felice J. Freyer at the Providence Journal and the NY Times’s Andrew Pollack have the test total up to five people. Pollack lists them as the original two plus one apiece with ALS, a brain stem stroke, and a spinal cord injury.
Interesting is that AP does not file a story. Its Malcolm Ritter had, however, in April last year a long feature on brain wave reading (he had himself hooked up, too, to a dealie that reads brain waves through the scalp). His story back then also described the BrainGate system.
Stories:
NY Times Andrew Pollack; Philadelphia Inquirer Tom Avril; USA Today Dan Vergano; Providence Journal Felice J. Freyer; Chicago Tribune Ron Kotulak; Boston Globe Carey Goldberg; LA Times Denise Gellene; Reuters Patricia Reaney; NPR (Fri) Talk of the Nation;
Grist for the Mill: Mass. Gen. Hosp. Press Release; Cyberkinetics 7/12 Press Release; Cyberkinetics 6/29 Press Release; Brown Univ. Press Release;
Earlier Reports: Wired March 2005 Richard Martin; Mirror (UK) 5/26 Nick Webster; Boston Globe 4/26 Johanna Seltz; AP Apr 2, 05 Malcolm Ritter;
Leave a Reply