Nicolelis’s lab has been working on the brain machine interface. The interface will obviously help many paraplegics but could be a boost for many neurological disorders. The lab has produced monkeys that can control objects using just their brains without any motor function. Recently, they created a mouse that though could not see infrared light with their eyes but when infrared light was impinged on their sensors, it could actually transmit that directly into their brain’s that enabled the rats to “feel” the infrared light. They have also been advertising the ability to record nearly 2000 neurons simultaneously on their website linked below. Obviously, 2000 neurons is a small fraction of neurons in the human brain but the link between the activities hopefully should help scientists understand the functioning of the brain and control it.
This project is a part of Walk again project that by enclosing the paraplegic within a bionic structure will enable the paraplegic to control all the bodily functions and hopefully walk again just based upon the interactions directly from the brain to the bionic structure.