Tapping the Mind

摘要

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) can trap the mind inside an immobile body. It destroys the nerves that control muscles, eventually leaving patients without the ability to speak or even flick their eyes to one side. In the past few years, however, researchers have started to equip a few such "locked-in" patients, including those paralyzed by stroke or other diseases, with communication devices that unlock their minds. For decades, science-fiction writers have envisioned computers that communicate directly with the brain. Now a rapidly expanding clique of researchers is making it a reality. A few laboratories started developing these so-called brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) in the 1980s and have been refining them since then (Science, 29 October 1999, p. 888). Now several dozen teams have entered the field. Together they're improving upon early BCI models and coming up with new ways to read brain signals. According to BCI pioneer Jonathan Wolpaw of the Wadsworth Center, part of the New York State Department of Health in Albany, "it's a very exciting time; a lot of people are getting involved."