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Cyberkinetics was founded by a team of researchers from Brown University led by John Donoghue, PhD. Cyberkinetics is seeking to commercialize a neural output device to help patients with severe motor impairment. All the authors are Cyberkinetics employees and shareholders.

"The disadvantage of the computerized assistive devices used today is that they require an individual to use substitute signals like voice or eye movement to manipulate a mouse or keyboard," said Donoghue. "The advantage of BrainGate is that it records directly from the brain and thus can translate brain activity into the intended hand movement over mouse or keyboard."

The BrainGate BCI consists of a microelectrode array sensor implanted into the motor cortex, an external cart containing computer hardware, and software that processes and decodes neural signals. Although no humans have been implanted with BrainGate yet, the device has been designed to meet human safety requirements.

Cyberkinetics hopes to start a pilot clinical trial with four to five quadriplegic individuals in 2004. Once the BrainGate device has been shown to record neural activity in paralyzed patients, then the team at Cyberkinetics will explore how the signals can be translated into output signals that could be used to control a computer.

In other work being presented at the symposium, Andrew Schwartz, PhD, will show how his group at the University of Pittsburgh is extending their work in cortical prostheses to robot control. Previously the group showed that closed-loop control of a cortical prosthesis can produce excellent brain-controlled movements in virtual reality. After showing that a monkey can use direct brain control to control a robotic arm in 3D spac
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Contact: Dawn McCoy
dawn@sfn.org
202-462-6688
Society for Neuroscience
10-Nov-2003