http://www.jsonline.com/alive/news/dec04/281287.asp
Think, think, shoot, score!
Brain electrodes help patients play video games in UW study
By JOHN FAUBER
[email protected]
Posted: Dec. 4, 2004
With electrodes implanted directly on their brains, two Madison patients were able to control a computer cursor and play a basic video game just by thinking about it.
Quotable
It was like a battle between the computer and my inner computer. There were times when we were done for the day and I said, 'No, I want to keep doing this.'
- Chandra Malmquist,,
36, of Stoughton, one of the two patients
The accomplishment highlights an amazing new technology that in the last year has created the distinct possibility that severely disabled people may soon be able to communicate and even regain movement by tapping directly into the brain and training it to bypass damaged nerve cells.
"It's as if the first flight at Kitty Hawk has gone a few hundred feet," said Joseph Pancrazio, program director of neural engineering at the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, which has funded the University of Wisconsin-Madison research and other projects.
The latest advance involves UW doctors who last month and in June removed a portion of the skulls of two patients and implanted electrodes on the surfaces of their brains.
Wires from the electrodes were plugged into a computer and the patients spent nearly two weeks trying to master their ability to control the cursor with their thoughts.
"It was like a battle between the computer and my inner computer," said Chandra Malmquist, 36, of Stoughton, one of two patients. "There were times when we were done for the day and I said, 'No, I want to keep doing this.' "
Over the course of the 10 days she was in the hospital, Malmquist said, she became fairly adept at moving the cursor across the screen and hitting a bar target, similar to the video game Pong.
She said she tried a variety of ways to control the cursor, such as imagining sounds or making faces.
"The most effective way was for me to scrunch my body really tight and (think) about yelling," she said. "Each day I got better."
Surgery for seizures
Malmquist, a mother of two, agreed to the experiment because she already was scheduled to have brain surgery to control the intractable seizures she was having as the result of a benign tumor.
As part of that surgery, a 2-inch by 3-inch section of her skull had to be temporarily removed and electrodes implanted to pinpoint where the seizures were coming from. Then, a tiny portion of her brain was removed.
The surgery went well, and Malmquist said she no longer suffers from seizures.
The second patient, a Wisconsin man who underwent surgery last month, also was able to move the cursor and do some preliminary spelling, said Charles Garell, director of functional neurosurgery at UW and chief of neurosurgery at the VA Hospital in Madison.
"Just through trial and error he was able to figure out a way to manipulate it," Garell said. "He couldn't really articulate how (he did it), other than it required his concentration."
The man, a construction worker in his late 30s, quickly learned to play a modified version of Pong, said Justin Williams, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and neurosurgery at UW.
"He was able to play it just as well as having a joystick in his hand," Williams said.
Garell and Williams said they plan to do several more of the implants in the coming months. They also are working on developing new electrodes that emit drugs that tone down the inflammation that comes from introducing a foreign object into the brain.
It is expected that the so-called brain-machine interface technology soon will allow severely disabled patients, such as those with spinal cord injuries, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) or those who have suffered strokes, to communicate.
"They are what is called 'locked in,' " Garell said. "Their thinking is intact, but there is no way for them to communicate."
Ultimately, the technology could be used to restore movement to disabled limbs by sending electrical impulses that bypass the spinal cord and go directly into muscles, stimulating the movement of arms and legs.
Controlling movement
"The simplest function is to communicate," said Jonathan Wolpaw, a neuroscientist at the Wadsworth Center of the New York State Department of Health in Albany. "Ultimately, you might be able to move a paralyzed limb."
Controlling movement probably still is a few years away, Wolpaw said.
Wolpaw, whose computer software was used by the UW researchers, is developing a non-invasive way to harness the brain's power, a cap that is covered with EEG electrodes and that is worn over the head.
The UW researchers join a small fraternity of cutting-edge neuroscientists whose technological feats of tapping the brain might have been considered the stuff of science fiction only a few years ago.
In the last two years there have been several experiments in which electrodes were implanted into the brains of monkeys, which were able to manipulate robotic arms and play video games. Then, researchers began implanting electrodes in people.
Last month, researchers at Brown University reported on the technology's success in a 25-year-old quadriplegic from Massachusetts.
After electrodes were implanted in his brain, the man was able to read e-mail, play video games, turn on lights, and change channels or adjust the volume on a TV.
The UW researchers are one of a handful of groups that have had success this year in implanting electrodes on the surface of the brain, said Daofen Chen, program director for neuro circuit research at NIH's neurological disorders and stroke institute.
"This (the UW work) is a significant development," Chen said.
From the Dec. 5, 2004, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Get the Journal Sentinel delivered to your home. Subscribe now.
Think, think, shoot, score!
Brain electrodes help patients play video games in UW study
By JOHN FAUBER
[email protected]
Posted: Dec. 4, 2004
With electrodes implanted directly on their brains, two Madison patients were able to control a computer cursor and play a basic video game just by thinking about it.
Quotable
It was like a battle between the computer and my inner computer. There were times when we were done for the day and I said, 'No, I want to keep doing this.'
- Chandra Malmquist,,
36, of Stoughton, one of the two patients
The accomplishment highlights an amazing new technology that in the last year has created the distinct possibility that severely disabled people may soon be able to communicate and even regain movement by tapping directly into the brain and training it to bypass damaged nerve cells.
"It's as if the first flight at Kitty Hawk has gone a few hundred feet," said Joseph Pancrazio, program director of neural engineering at the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, which has funded the University of Wisconsin-Madison research and other projects.
The latest advance involves UW doctors who last month and in June removed a portion of the skulls of two patients and implanted electrodes on the surfaces of their brains.
Wires from the electrodes were plugged into a computer and the patients spent nearly two weeks trying to master their ability to control the cursor with their thoughts.
"It was like a battle between the computer and my inner computer," said Chandra Malmquist, 36, of Stoughton, one of two patients. "There were times when we were done for the day and I said, 'No, I want to keep doing this.' "
Over the course of the 10 days she was in the hospital, Malmquist said, she became fairly adept at moving the cursor across the screen and hitting a bar target, similar to the video game Pong.
She said she tried a variety of ways to control the cursor, such as imagining sounds or making faces.
"The most effective way was for me to scrunch my body really tight and (think) about yelling," she said. "Each day I got better."
Surgery for seizures
Malmquist, a mother of two, agreed to the experiment because she already was scheduled to have brain surgery to control the intractable seizures she was having as the result of a benign tumor.
As part of that surgery, a 2-inch by 3-inch section of her skull had to be temporarily removed and electrodes implanted to pinpoint where the seizures were coming from. Then, a tiny portion of her brain was removed.
The surgery went well, and Malmquist said she no longer suffers from seizures.
The second patient, a Wisconsin man who underwent surgery last month, also was able to move the cursor and do some preliminary spelling, said Charles Garell, director of functional neurosurgery at UW and chief of neurosurgery at the VA Hospital in Madison.
"Just through trial and error he was able to figure out a way to manipulate it," Garell said. "He couldn't really articulate how (he did it), other than it required his concentration."
The man, a construction worker in his late 30s, quickly learned to play a modified version of Pong, said Justin Williams, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and neurosurgery at UW.
"He was able to play it just as well as having a joystick in his hand," Williams said.
Garell and Williams said they plan to do several more of the implants in the coming months. They also are working on developing new electrodes that emit drugs that tone down the inflammation that comes from introducing a foreign object into the brain.
It is expected that the so-called brain-machine interface technology soon will allow severely disabled patients, such as those with spinal cord injuries, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) or those who have suffered strokes, to communicate.
"They are what is called 'locked in,' " Garell said. "Their thinking is intact, but there is no way for them to communicate."
Ultimately, the technology could be used to restore movement to disabled limbs by sending electrical impulses that bypass the spinal cord and go directly into muscles, stimulating the movement of arms and legs.
Controlling movement
"The simplest function is to communicate," said Jonathan Wolpaw, a neuroscientist at the Wadsworth Center of the New York State Department of Health in Albany. "Ultimately, you might be able to move a paralyzed limb."
Controlling movement probably still is a few years away, Wolpaw said.
Wolpaw, whose computer software was used by the UW researchers, is developing a non-invasive way to harness the brain's power, a cap that is covered with EEG electrodes and that is worn over the head.
The UW researchers join a small fraternity of cutting-edge neuroscientists whose technological feats of tapping the brain might have been considered the stuff of science fiction only a few years ago.
In the last two years there have been several experiments in which electrodes were implanted into the brains of monkeys, which were able to manipulate robotic arms and play video games. Then, researchers began implanting electrodes in people.
Last month, researchers at Brown University reported on the technology's success in a 25-year-old quadriplegic from Massachusetts.
After electrodes were implanted in his brain, the man was able to read e-mail, play video games, turn on lights, and change channels or adjust the volume on a TV.
The UW researchers are one of a handful of groups that have had success this year in implanting electrodes on the surface of the brain, said Daofen Chen, program director for neuro circuit research at NIH's neurological disorders and stroke institute.
"This (the UW work) is a significant development," Chen said.
From the Dec. 5, 2004, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Get the Journal Sentinel delivered to your home. Subscribe now.
