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Subject: FROM TOUCHPAD TO THOUGHT-PAD?

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH News 
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
<http://www.ninds.nih.gov/>
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) <http://www.nimh.nih.gov/>
Embargoed for Release: Wednesday, October 27, 2010, 1 pm EDT

CONTACT: 
Daniel Stimson, NINDS, 301-496-5751,<e-mail:[log in to unmask]>

FROM TOUCHPAD TO THOUGHT-PAD?
NIH-funded research shows that digital images can be manipulated with the
mind

Move over, touchpad screens:  New research funded in part by the National
Institutes of Health shows that it is possible to manipulate complex visual
images on a computer screen using only the mind.

The study, published in Nature, found that when research subjects had their
brains connected to a computer displaying two merged images, they could
force the computer to display one of the images and discard the other.  The
signals transmitted from each subject's brain to the computer were derived
from just a handful of brain cells.

"The subjects were able to use their thoughts to override the images they
saw on the computer screen," said the study's lead author, Itzhak Fried,
M.D., Ph.D., a professor of neurosurgery at the University of California,
Los Angeles.  The study was funded in part by the National Institute of
Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), and the National Institute of
Mental Health (NIMH), both part of NIH.

The study reflects progress in the development of brain-computer interfaces
(BCIs), devices that allow people to control computers or other devices with
their thoughts.  BCIs hold promise for helping paralyzed individuals to
communicate or control prosthetic limbs.  But in this study, BCI technology
was used mostly as a tool to understand how the brain processes information,
and especially to understand how thoughts and decisions are shaped by the
collective activity of single brain cells.  

"This is a novel and elegant use of a brain-computer interface to explore
how the brain directs attention and makes choices," said Debra Babcock,
M.D., Ph.D., a program director at NINDS.

The study involved 12 people with epilepsy who had fine wires implanted in
their brains to record seizure activity.  Recordings like these are
routinely used to locate areas of the brain that are responsible for
seizures.  In this study, the wires were inserted in the medial temporal
lobe, a brain region important for memory and the ability to recognize
complex images, including faces.  

While the recordings from their brains were transmitted to a computer, the
research subjects viewed two pictures superimposed on a computer screen,
each picture showing a familiar object, place, animal or person. They were
told to select one image as a target and to focus their thoughts on it until
that image was fully visible and the other image faded away.  The monitor
was updated every one-tenth of one second based on the input from the brain
recordings.

As a group, the subjects attempted this game nearly 900 times in total, and
were able to force the monitor to display the target image in 70 percent of
these attempts.  Subjects tended to learn the task very quickly, and often
were successful on the first try.

The brain recordings and the input to the computer were based on the
activity of just four cells in the temporal lobe.  Prior research has shown
that individual cells in this part of the brain respond preferentially -
firing impulses at a higher rate - to specific images.  For instance, one
cell in the temporal lobe might respond to seeing a picture of Marilyn
Monroe, while another might respond to Michael Jackson. Both were among the
celebrity faces used in the study.  

Dr. Fried's team first identified four brain cells with preferences for
celebrities or familiar objects, animals or landmarks, and then targeted the
recording electrodes to those cells.  The team found that when subjects
played the image-switching game, their success appeared to depend on their
ability to power up cells that preferred the target image and suppress cells
that preferred the non-target image.

"The remarkable aspects of this study are that we can concentrate our
attention to make a choice by modulating so few brain cells and that we can
learn to control those cells very quickly," said Dr. Babcock.  

Prior studies on BCIs have shown that it is possible to perform other tasks,
such as controlling a computer cursor, with just a few brain cells.
However, the task here was more complex and might have been expected to
involve legions of cells in diverse brain areas needed for vision,
attention, memory and decision-making.

NINDS (www.ninds.nih.gov) is the nation's leading funder of research on the
brain and nervous system.  The NINDS mission is to reduce the burden of
neurological disease - a burden borne by every age group, by every segment
of society, by people all over the world. 

The mission of the NIMH (www.nimh.nih.gov) is to transform the understanding
and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research,
paving the way for prevention, recovery and cure.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research
Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency
for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical
research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both
common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs,
visit <www.nih.gov>.
--------------------------
REFERENCE:  Cerf M et al.  "On-line, voluntary control of human temporal
lobe neurons," Nature, October 28, 2010.
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