Communications of the ACM
Ultrasound Reads Monkey Brains, Opening Path to Controlling Machines with Thought
California Institute of Technology researchers transformed a series of ultrasound images from a monkeys brain into predictions about the animal's intended movements.
Credit: Sumner Norman
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have developed a method of predicting a monkey's intended eye or hand movements using ultrasound imaging.
Their findings could help people who are paralyzed to control prostheses without requiring implants in their brains (although the technique does require a small piece of skull to be removed).
Since functional ultrasound provides a less direct signal than implanted electrodes, the researchers tested whether the signal provides sufficient information for a computer to interpret the intended movement by inserting ultrasound transducers into the skulls of two rhesus macaque monkeys.
The researchers found the algorithm was 78% accurate in predicting monkey eye movements, and 89% accurate in predicting an arm reach.
From Science
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Abstracts Copyright © 2021 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA
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