Rats With Electrodes in Brains Taught to Control Robotic Arm

In a discovery that may have implications for developing human prosthetic devices, researchers have found that rats can learn to control a robotic arm using electrodes implanted in their brains.

According to researchers from the Hahnemann Medical College and Duke University, the rats were originally trained to get drinks of water by pressing a lever that activated the robotic arm. The team analyzed the brain activity associated with the rats’ movements and programmed the arm to respond to it, they reported in the July Nature Medicine. Eventually, they disconnected the lever from the arm. When the rats then pressed the lever, their brain activity triggered the arm into motion. Eventually, the rats stopped pressing the lever and began controlling the arm by brain activity alone.

If the technique proves safe and reliable in animals such as monkeys, it might eventually be tested in people with severe paralysis.

--Compiled from Times staff reports