Monkeys’ virtual brain power provides hope for humans

MONKEYS have been trained to move and feel virtual objects using thought alone in a breakthrough that could help paralysed people move and experience the world around them.

Two rhesus monkeys learned to operate a virtual arm and to tell virtual objects apart.

The electrical activity of the monkeys’ brains was used to direct the hands of a virtual monkey – or avatar – on a computer screen. Its hands were used to explore three virtual objects, which looked alike but had different textures, expressed as tiny electrical signals relayed back to the monkeys’ brains.

The monkeys were rewarded with fruit juice if they found a particular object.

The study, published in the journal Nature, was carried out by the Duke University Centre for Neuroengineering in Durham, North Carolina.

Co-director Miguel Nicolelis said the research could help them develop an exoskeleton – an external mechanical device – that would let paralysed patients walk again.

Mr Nicolelis said: “We hope that in the next few years this technology could help to restore a more autonomous life to many patients who are currently ‘locked in’ without being able to move or experience any tactile sensation of the surrounding world

“This is also the first time we’ve observed a brain controlling a virtual arm that explores objects while the brain simultaneously receives electrical feedback signals.

“The remarkable success with non-human primates is what makes us believe humans could accomplish the same task much more easily in the near future.”

The Walk Again Project, led by the Duke Centre, aims to carry out a public demonstration of a robotic exoskeleton, which could allow quadriplegic people to move again, at the opening game of the 2014 Football World Cup in Brazil.

Rhesus monkeys, or rhesus macaques, are native to Asia and were the first primates to be cloned in 2000.