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Imagine: a robotic prosthetic arm that you can not only control with your brain, but actually feel when it touches something. This might sound like science fiction, but a team of researchers designed and tested a system with monkeys that does just this. They call their setup a "brain-machine-brain interface," or BMBI, and it has the potential to give amputees closer-to-normal functionality.
Brain-machine interfaces (BMI) have come a long way in recent years, enabling complex robotic limbs with multiple degrees of freedom, but people rely on tactile feedback for fine control of their limbs. Try to imagine picking up something as simple as a glass without being able to feel when your fingers are around it—awkward and difficult. Unfortunately, this is one area where there has been less progress. One group used vibrational feedback to indicate touching, but otherwise most BMI systems rely on sight—until now.
The BMI portion of this new approach is similar to one we reported on a few years ago. The researchers implanted microelectrode wires in the primary motor cortex (also known as M1) of a monkey’s brain. M1 is the region of the brain responsible for movements, so by measuring electrical signals in particular places, the brain interface can effectively directly control robotic limbs.
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