Building Postprosthetic Cybernetics

the backbone of mind-machine interfaces is the ability to analyze neural activity

Sure, the system demonstrated at Pitt in May accessed information from 100 neurons at once. But Nicolelis’s lab has managed five times that amount, with data coming from up to 10 different brain structures

“We’re able to look at brain dynamics on a scale that no one else has been able to

With a physical neural connection, Nicolelis believes that brain plasticity can be achieved quickly and with greater precision than current prosthetic control systems.

So the brain would not only respond to data from sensors in the bionic limb, but would account for unfamiliar amounts of speed and force. For sci-fi fans, the implications don’t need spelling out: prosthetics that are faster and stronger than normal limbs, with roughly the same level of control as their flesh-and-blood predecessors