Brain implants allow paralysed monkeys to walk
1–10 of 173 posts
Re: Brain implants allow paralysed monkeys to walk
#2"The problem I see with this is that they implant monkey before paralysis and can use machine learning to build a model of the monkey's unique representation for walking. Then they paralyze and show the monkey's can adapt to only using their interface in 5 days. There's no way the mapping from neural activity to stimulation is generalizable..." [1]
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/5c2ljz/brain_impla...
Re: Brain implants allow paralysed monkeys to walk
#3"The problem I see with this is that they implant monkey before paralysis and can use machine learning to build a model of the monkey's unique representation for walking. Then they paralyze and show the monkey's can adapt to only using their interface in 5 days. There's no way the mapping from neural activity to stimulation is generalizable..." [1] [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/5c2ljz/brain_impla...
Indeed, the research is a bit unfair. Its not difficult to understand old signals and they reuse it to generate motor effects.
Re: Brain implants allow paralysed monkeys to walk
#4I cant help to feel sad for the monkey. I'm not sure this is the way research should be done. Why not try this on a smaller scale animal first before doing it on a monkey?
Also you don"t need to cut the spinal cord todo data analysis.
Re: Brain implants allow paralysed monkeys to walk
#5I cant help to feel sad for the monkey. I'm not sure this is the way research should be done. Why not try this on a smaller scale animal first before doing it on a monkey? Also you don"t need to cut the spinal cord todo data analysis.
"The experiments are more of a progression than a sudden breakthrough: they are based on a decade of work in rats, Courtine says, and the monkeys reacted in very similar ways."
Re: Brain implants allow paralysed monkeys to walk
#6I cant help to feel sad for the monkey. I'm not sure this is the way research should be done. Why not try this on a smaller scale animal first before doing it on a monkey? Also you don"t need to cut the spinal cord todo data analysis.
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Re: Brain implants allow paralysed monkeys to walk
#7"For more than a decade, neuroscientist Grégoire Courtine has been flying every few months from his lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne to another lab in Beijing, China, where he conducts research on monkeys with the aim of treating spinal-cord injuries.
The commute is exhausting — on occasion he has even flown to Beijing, done experiments, and returned the same night. But it is worth it, says Courtine, because working with monkeys in China is less burdened by regulation than it is in Europe and the United States"
I personally know researchers who have to take similar measures to be able to do their research.
When we are happy as a society to slaughter billions of animals every year for food (usually keeping them in appalling conditions beforehand) I don't understand how we can justify the restrictions we put on scientists.
Re: Brain implants allow paralysed monkeys to walk
#8"For more than a decade, neuroscientist Grégoire Courtine has been flying every few months from his lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne to another lab in Beijing, China, where he conducts research on monkeys with the aim of treating spinal-cord injuries. The commute is exhausting — on occasion he has even flown to Beijing, done experiments, and returned the same night. But it is worth it, say…
Because it's creepy and weird so we will consider a quick slaughter more ethical than experimentation because bacon and steak is so delicious.
That's my guess.
Re: Brain implants allow paralysed monkeys to walk
#9"The problem I see with this is that they implant monkey before paralysis and can use machine learning to build a model of the monkey's unique representation for walking. Then they paralyze and show the monkey's can adapt to only using their interface in 5 days. There's no way the mapping from neural activity to stimulation is generalizable..." [1] [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/5c2ljz/brain_impla...
I have a spinal condition called Syringomyelia, at the moment apart from neuropathic pain it doesn't effect my ability to walk but down the line it could (with complete paralysis been a possible outcome).
They could record the way my brain sends walk signals and if I end up paralysed they have the data to train the model.
There are multiple spinal conditions that result in paralysis after not be been paralysed, not everyone who ends up in a wheelchair gets their by an accident.
Re: Brain implants allow paralysed monkeys to walk
#10Another reason why we need strong, unbreakable encryption. Can you imagine something like this getting hacked/cracked?