Brain sensor allows mind-control

大脑传感器允许精神控制

A sensor implanted in a paralysed man‘s brain has enabled him to control objects by using his thoughts alone. The experimental set-up allowed the man, who has no limb movement at all, to open e-mail, play a computer game, and pinch a prosthetic hand‘s fingers. The US team behind the sensor hopes its technology can one day be incorporated into the body to restore the movement of paralysed limbs themselves. The Massachusetts-based team‘s study is published in the journal Nature. Matthew Nagle, 25 at the time of the trial, was left paralysed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair after a knife attack in 2001. He was the first patient to try out the brain sensor. A team of scientists inserted the device, called a neuromotor prosthesis (NMP), into an area of the brain known as the motor cortex, which is responsible for voluntary movement. The NMP comprises an internal sensor that detects brain cell activity, and external processors that convert the activity into signals that can be recognised by a computer.

一个传感器移植到一个瘫痪的人的大脑，能使他通过个人思维控制一个物体，实验装置允许一个肢体已无法动弹的人，打开电邮，玩电脑游戏，控制手指的收缩，美国发明这个传感器的队伍希望有一天，它能和身体合为一体，恢复他们自己瘫痪肢体的移动，基地在马萨诸塞的小组的研究已发布在自然杂志上，Matthew Nagle，在25岁出外旅行时，留下了颈部以下的瘫痪，并且由于2001年的一次持刀攻击而只能靠轮椅行动。他是一个体验大脑传感器的病人，一组科学家插入一种叫做神经运动弥补的装置到大脑中一个叫做运动皮层的区域。它是负责有意运动。神经运动弥补装置包含了内部传感器，用来探知脑细胞活动，并将外部处理转换成能被电脑识别的活动信号。

Although the patient‘s spinal cord had been severed for three years by the time of the trial, the scientists found that brain cell activity - or neural firing patterns - persisted in the patient‘s motor cortex. The electrodes in the NMP were able to record this activity and send it to a computer. The computer then translated the firing patterns into movement commands which could drive computer controls or artificial limbs.

虽然病人的脊髓遭受严重创伤已经3年了，科学家发现大脑细胞活动或神经中枢活动的方式，大脑运动皮层还在继续运做，在神经运动弥补装置中的电极能记录活动并传输它到电脑。电脑接着将活动方式翻译成运动命令，以能使电脑控制假肢。