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Scientists One Step Closer To Brain Implants

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US Researchers have made an important discovery that may lead to better connectivity between the brain and computer interfaces. Connecting electrodes to the nervous system is difficult because the tissue becomes inflamed when in contact with metal. This creates a layer of electrically insulating scar tissue that makes it harder to send or receive signals.

The new technology is based on a rubber-like polymer that soaks around the brain cells and then is connected to electrodes by the surgeon. Initially this is a breakthrough for prosthetics like bionic eyes or arms.

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4 responses // Scientists One Step Closer To Brain Implants

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_implant
    Great background and launching off point for exploring the history and future of brain implants over on Wikipedia:
    Justin_Gunn
  • http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7103668/
    amazing! but it brings the discussion of what is next? We started off with penicillin, and here we are with the possibility of brain implants! Disease is ultimately there for a reason, we have cured so many of our problems that horrific degenerative disease is more common place in the method of natural selection, what will evolution throw our way next??
    rebecca22
  • http://www.horror-wood.com/pretor10.jpg
    My local doctor was pretty happy.
    Scott_Bromley
  • In some ways this is so amazing, and in other ways its absolutely horrifying.

    On general principal, I'm going to have to agree with Rebecca22 that this isn't natural, and worry that evolutionary advances will just throw us something new for natural selection, perhaps worse than what we're dealing with now.

    But the dreamer in me, that wonderful imagination of mine, and the part of me that's a writer for life have me wondering just how long it will take, how it will be done, who the first human test subject will be, and how they will react to having their brain in another body...

    Not to mention the empath in me is so happy for the advancement of bionic limbs and eyes and the like. Those are so neat to me, that they can do that and have them function like a normal limb would... And any advancement in that field is kind of awesome.

    It occurred to me that if both the use of prosthetics and brain transplanting are used in unison, man kind would be able to create android bodies for their brains... This idea, more than anything, is what really, really scares me. (And not just because of the Cybermen on Doctor Who, either!) The very thought of something human being turned into something machine terrifies me, because then the government would have yet another way to control people. Turn 'em all into robots, install emotion inhibition units, nobody cares about anything or anyone, anymore, and then we're all nothing more than a bunch of metal zombies.
    Worst-case scenario, of course, and completely science fiction... But it just might be a possibility.

    At any rate, it would make one hell of a movie, huh?
    Candice_Dionysus

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