Mind Power News

WELCOME TO MIND POWER NEWS...
A weekly update of news headlines, scientific developments and cutting edge resources pointing to the astounding powers of the human mind. This issue is being sent out to 4891 subscribers. Thank you all for your support!

THIS WEEK: MIND/MACHINE OVER MATTER

Wow! The advances in neuroscience are getting more bizarre with each passing day. All the stories this week are concerned with innovations in technology which are enabling the electrical impulses created by human thought to control and direct various machines and mechanisms. It won't be long before we're all implanted with wires and are able to do the dishes just by thinking about it!

This week we learn about a computer which can read the minds of monkeys in order to move a robotic arm;, a "brain-computer" interface which allows a paralysed man to help himself to a glass of beer; a "mind-cap" which can use the energy from our thoughts to turn on switches in our house; and the development of a mind controlled wheelchair.

To top off the weirdness, don't miss the story of the researchers who are "tricking" people who have suffered strokes into healing their bodies by playing mind games during their rehabilitation.

MONKEYS CONTROL ROBOTIC ARM WITH BRAIN IMPLANTS

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post

Scientists in North Carolina have built a brain implant that lets monkeys control a robotic arm with their thoughts, marking the first time that mental intentions have been harnessed to move a mechanical object.

The technology could someday allow people with paralyzing spinal cord injuries to operate machines or tools with their thoughts as naturally as others today do with their hands. It might even allow some paralyzed people to move their own arms or legs again, by transmitting the brain's directions not to a machine but directly to the muscles in those latent limbs.

In the new experiments, monkeys with wires running from their brains to a robotic arm were able to use their thoughts to make the arm perform tasks. But before long, the scientists said, they will upgrade the implants so the monkeys can transmit their mental commands to machines wirelessly.

The experiments, led by Miguel A.L. Nicolelis of Duke University in Durham, N.C., and published today in the journal PLoS Biology, are the latest in a progression of increasingly science fiction-like studies in which animals -- and in a few cases people -- have learned to use the brain's subtle electrical signals to operate simple devices.

Until now, those achievements have been limited to "virtual" actions, such as making a cursor move across a computer screen, or to small two-dimensional actions such as flipping a little lever that is wired to the brain.

The new work is the first in which any animal has learned to use its brain to move a robotic device in all directions in space and to perform a mixture of interrelated movements -- such as reaching toward an object, grasping it and adjusting the grip strength depending on how heavy the object is.

The monkeys quickly learned how to use the joystick to make the arm reach and grasp for objects, and how to adjust their grip on the joystick to vary the robotic hand's grip strength. They could see on the monitor when they missed their target or dropped it for having too light a grip, and they were rewarded with sips of juice when they performed their tasks successfully.

While the monkeys trained, a computer tracked the patterns of bioelectrical activity in the animals' brains. The computer figured out that certain patterns amounted to a command to "reach." Others, it became clear, meant "grasp." Gradually, the computer learned to "read" the monkeys' minds.

Then the researchers did something radical: They unplugged the joystick so the robotic arm's movements depended completely on a monkey's brain activity. In effect, the computer that had been studying the animal's neural firing patterns was now serving as an interpreter, decoding the brain signals according to what it had learned from the joystick games and then sending the appropriate instructions to the mechanical arm.

At first, Nicolelis said, the monkey kept moving the joystick, not realizing that her own brain was now solely in charge of the arm's movements. Then, he said, an amazing thing happened.

"We're looking, and she stops moving her arm," he said, "but the cursor keeps playing the game and the robot arm is moving around."

The animal was controlling the robot with its thoughts.

"We couldn't speak. It was dead silence," Nicolelis said. "No one wanted to verbalize what was happening. And she continued to do that for almost an hour."

Read the full article here: Washington Post

'BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE' FOR PARALYSED MAN

By Quintin Walker
Sapa-DPA

Austrian technicians are using a system of thought transference to enable a paralysed man to lift his hand and drink from a glass, achieving a medical first.

Thanks to a "brain-computer interface" developed by a research team in Graz, 27-year-old Thomas Schweiger has been able to perform the simple, but for him previously impossible, actions for the first time since he was paralysed from the neck down in a swimming accident in Malta in 1998.

Head of Graz University's institute for electronic and biomedical technology, Gert Pfurtscheller, quoted in newspapers on Wednesday, said that mental images formed by the patient caused tiny but measurable changes in brain activity.

They were registered by the time-honoured method of an electroencephalogram (EEG). Each mental image, such as clutching an object or raising a hand, caused a distinct EEG pattern of minute electrical currents.

The currents were amplified via the brain-computer interface, and transformed into binary steering signals. Then, surface electrodes attached to the patient's left forearm stimulated the hand muscles and started the required gripping or relaxing motion.

Pfurtscheller emphasised that the patient had to clearly picture in his mind each action, whether opening or closing the hand, or lifting the arm.

For daily use, a switch had been attached to his wheelchair which he could activate with the slight movement remaining to him of his left arm. "This is only the beginning. It's realistic that in a few years' time, electrodes will be implanted in the head", the researcher said.

Pfurtscheller spoke of the "iron will" of his patient, and the months of training he had needed before his mental images could steer his hand.

"Thomas thinks of a movement, if he wants to open or close his hand. He can now eat a slice of bread, or drink a beer." For other paralysed patients so far also dependent on others feeding them, the new method could mean an immeasurable improvement in their quality of life.

Read the full article here: www.iol.co.za

'MIND SWITCH' WINS AT INNOVATION AWARDS

University of Technology
Sydney, Australia

A team of University of Technology, Sydney researchers have won a judges' special award at the first Australian Commercialisation Forum and Fair in Sydney, for a device that enables people with disabilities to control home appliances with their brainwaves.

Winners of the award included team leader Professor Ashley Craig, Paul McIsaac and Dr Yvonne Tran from the UTS Department of Health Sciences.

Professor Craig said the group's Mind Switch device allowed people to activate and control electrical appliances simply by closing their eyes and was a breakthrough for people with disabilities.

"The Mind Switch technology harnesses a burst of alpha brainwaves are emitted when a person's eyes are closed," Professor Craig said. "The technology is able to isolate the appropriate brainwaves from other brain activity and be used to switch appliances on and off or change TV channels."

The Mind Switch consists of a small cap that contains electrodes to pick up the brain's natural activity through the scalp. The cap reads the brain's alpha waves and transmits signals to a computer, which is connected to power points around the house. Changes in brain waves can signal these power points to switch on or off, thereby allowing the user to activate electrical devices.

The device works over a distance of 300 metres and when first worn the user must open and close their eyes to record their personal maximum and minimum range of alpha levels.

Read the full article here: University of Technology Sydney

SCIENTISTS DEVELOPING MIND-CONTROLLED WHEELCHAIR

Reuters

Swiss and Spanish scientists are developing a mind-controlled wheelchair that could one day give severely paralysed patients new independence.

The system will use electrodes embedded in a skullcap worn by the patient to transmit messages from the brain to a computer which passes them on to the chair through a wireless link.

"Early trials using a robot indicate that with just two days' training it is as easy to control the robot with the human mind as it is manually," New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday.

The system has been designed by Jose Millan of the Dalle Molle Institute for Perceptual Artificial Intelligence in Martigny, Switzerland, scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and the Centre for Biomedical Engineering Research in Barcelona.

The scientists are testing the system with a simple, wheeled robot using commands to turn left, right or go forward. It also includes in-built intelligence to ensure the robot does not collide with anything.

If all goes well, Millan believes it will be the first mind-controlled system able to operate something as complicated as a wheelchair.

Read the full article here: Reuters

MIND GAMES BOOST STROKE REHAB

BBC News

Playing tricks on the minds of people who have had strokes can help them to overcome paralysis, says a study.

Doctors in the United States say they have used imagination and mirrors to help patients trick their brain into thinking they can move arms and legs.

As part of the treatment, patients are told to imagine they can move limbs that are actually paralysed.

They then watch themselves move their unaffected limbs in a mirror and tell themselves they are moving their paralysed leg or arm.

Dr Jennifer Stevens and colleagues at Northwestern University said the technique has helped patients to recover more quickly and regain control of arms and legs that have been paralysed following a stroke.

As part of the treatment, patients were offered three one hour therapy sessions every week for four weeks.

In the first session, they watched a hand moving on a computer screen. They then imagined that their paralysed hand could do the exact same movement.

In the second session, they moved their unaffected arm around and watched it in a mirror.

The mirror was positioned in such a way that it looked like the patient was moving its paralysed arm. They were also told to imagine that they were moving that arm.

In the third session, the patient tried to move the paralysed arm or hand.

The doctors found that the simulated and imagined movement of the previous sessions had an effect.

The doctors believe that imagining that otherwise paralysed limbs can move helps the brain to recover after a stroke and regain control of arms and legs.

"Actions generated using motor-imagery adhere to the same movement rules and constraints that physical movements follow and the neural network involved in motor imagery and motor execution overlap in areas of the brain concerned with movement," said Dr Stevens.

Read the full article here: BBC

HELP SUPPORT MIND POWER NEWS
BY CHECKING OUT MY SPONSORS

ANCIENT TIBETAN HEALTH SECRETS
Five secret Tibetan exercises will help you increase energy and
activate your power centers.

LEARN TO HYPNOTISE
The Secrets of Hypnosis Revealed
"...you will be hypnotizing people within the hour!..."

RAPID MANIFESTATION
The Ultimate Secret to getting what you want NOW!

WANT MORE? Past issues of Mind Power News are available here.

FEEDBACK... suggestions, wants, needs, gripes:
E-mail Andreas at MindPowerNews@yahoo.ca

THANK YOU... for subscribing to Mind Power News. If you know anyone who might be interested in this e-zine, please let them know that they can join at www.MindPowerNews.com

Andreas Ohrt,
Editor, Mind Power News

P.S. LIKE BIZARRE NEWS? Check out my other e-zine, Curious Times,
a weekly roundup of newsbites from the "truth is stranger than
fiction" department. Sign up at www.CuriousTimes.com