American monkey brains control Japanese robots

For the first time ever, monkeys walking on treadmills in the U.S. can control robots on treadmills in Japan. This news has been brought to you by Duke University Medical Center researchers along with the Computational Brain Project of the Japan Science and Technology Agency

Also: CGI of monkeys walking treadmills:

Now that we've partnered the increasingly dangerous monkeys with increasingly dangerous robots, the lasers are that much more important.

The two rhesus monkeys had electrodes implanted in their brains' motor and sensory cortex to capture activity in over 200 brain cells in multiple areas of the brain. The setup captured reactions as the monkeys walked at varying speeds on the treadmills

"They can walk in complete synchronization," said Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, the Anne W. Deane Professor of Neuroscience at Duke. "The most stunning finding is that when we stopped the treadmill and the monkey ceased to move its legs, it was able to sustain the locomotion of the robot for a few minutes -- just by thinking -- using only the visual feedback of the robot in Japan."

There are some obvious real-world applications--outside of the joy I get of seeing animated monkeys walking on treadmills. Without moving, our brains could control prosthetic devices a world away. Also, probably those attached to our elbows or legs.

"Even though a person may have a lesion that paralyzes him or her, the brain of this person continues to produce the signals that are needed to produce locomotion patterns or upper limb movements," said Nicolelis. "What we are showing here [is] that you can go and harvest these signals and bypass the lesion and send them to an artificial device that can restore this mobility."

The researchers believe work will begin within the year to develop prototypes. Let's see Oscar Pistorius outskate that.

Whatever, animated monkeys on treadmills.

[via Information Week]