Recent research at the California Institute of Technology has confirmed that an area of the human brain, the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vPF), is involved in the planning stages of movement. The planning stages of movement happen during the instantaneous flicker of time when we contemplate moving a limb. This has implications for the development of brain-machine interfaces for the paralyzed as well as for able-bodied people who may seek to augment themselves with such technology. According the press release, the work currently appears in the online version of Nature Neuroscience. I do not subscribe to Nature so unfortunatly I can not access this paper.

“We were looking for the brain regions that may be contributing to planned movements. And what I was able to show is that a part of the brain called the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex is indeed involved in planning these movements.” Just by analyzing the brain activity from the implanted electrodes using software algorithms that he wrote, Rizzuto was able to tell with very high accuracy where the target was located while it was on the screen, and also what direction the patient was going to reach to when the target wasn’t even there.

Why I blog this? Practical consumer/amateur level brain-computer interfaces, with at least rudimentary functionality, are within reach. Obviously implanted electrodes are not practical for most people, but research is advancing in all directions. So, if we do get external BCI’s, even if they act simply as a new form of mouse, they will still be very hot technology to play with. I try to keep somewhat up to date on developments in this field.

via Caltech Press Release - Scientists Discover What You Are Thinking, March 16, 2005
via KurzweilAI.net