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Communication – Agencies:
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Patients with paralysis may one day use a smartphone or tablet PC by simply reflecting on what they want to do with the help of sensors implanted in their brains, according to a study recent.
Previous experiments have had some success using brain sensors connected to computers modified to help paralysis patients write up to eight words a minute, but the current experience is centered on the ## EQU1 ## 39; helps patients with the disease, said Jamie Henderson of the Faculty of Medicine at Stanford University in California. Use tablets and smartphones without any special modifications.
"We may still have years to develop a device that can be implanted and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration so that it is available for widespread use," Henderson said in an e-mail. But I am convinced that most of the technological obstacles have been removed and we will see in the near future aids that allow paralyzed people to control a computer using only their ideas. "
The trial included only three patients, two with weak legs or unable to move their arms and legs due to lateral sclerosis, while the third patient was paralyzed as a result of An injury to the spine.
Scientists have installed devices the size of an aspirin in a region of the brain called the motor cortex, responsible for planning and conducting voluntary movements.
The purpose of the device is to monitor the signals associated with the desired movements, and then transfer them to a Bluetooth-enabled device, designed to function as a mouse computer connected to a "Google Nexus 9" wireless computer, which scientists do not have. have not changed.
Using the wireless sensor and mouse, participants in the experiment were able to navigate through popular programs on the Tablet PC, including e-mail, chat, music, and video.
Patients were also able to send messages to their relatives, friends, and research team members, as well as to each other, as well as to access the Internet, view the weather, and shop electronically.
One of the patients played the piano and managed to play a piece of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
"The participants were able to achieve up to 22 trigger tasks and click by the minute, using different applications," wrote the researchers in the journal PlusOne.
For text applications, participants could write up to 30 characters per minute. The experiment was conducted by a team of doctors, scientists and engineers.
The team previously indicated that the device used in the current experiment could allow people to move the arms of the mechanism or regain control of the limbs, despite loss of mobility due to injury or illness.
"The peculiarity of the experience is that it does not require any modification of tablets, but can be applied to the same devices as healthy people," said Steven Chase, deputy director of neuroscience at Carnegie Mellon University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
"This means that it will not be necessary to design special software for users of these devices, which greatly increases the number of applications that these patients will be able to treat," said Chase did not participate in the experiment.
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