A Different Take on Brain Games

Scientific journal Nature released details this week of an experiment in which a video game was controlled by a paraplegic subject using nothing but the power of his mind. The research is working towards enabling people afflicted by paralyzing conditions to exhibit independent control of actions such as operating a wheelchair and eating. This week's results were achieved not with scalp-mounted electrodes, as has traditionally been the case for such experiments, but through an actual chip implanted into 25-year-old Matthew Nagle's brain.

Other researchers have achieved similar results using devices that capture brain waves through electrodes on the scalp. But some scientists think implanted devices hold the greatest promise because they pick up signals directly from the region of the brain responsible for movement... A wire the thickness of a strand of vermicelli carried the impulses from the brain to a half-inch-tall pedestal attached to the skull. From there, an external cable transmitted the signals to a computer.