Until recently, our relationship with technology has been limited to physical and direct command. To get a device to take action, you must touch it, or speak to it. All of this could change with this new technology called, brain-computer interfaces. This amazing technology will not only revamp military applications, but most importantly help the medical community substantially. It brings the possibility of sound to the deaf, sight to the blind and movement to the physically challenged. However, with all great ideas there is a downside, there are many technical and ethical issues that people are not willing to risk.
A brain-computer interface, also known as a BCI, is technology that allows a device to respond neural signals from the brain and turn them into actions controlled by a subject (Kotchetkov 1). The device they use to achieve this is called an electroencephalograph, also referred to as EEG. They are two ways of using this device, invasive and non-invasive. The invasive method requires for the device to be implanted directly into the brain, while the non-invasive method only consists of placing the device on the surface of the scalp. The only reason why any of this technology exists is because of how our brain works. "Our brains are filled with neurons, individual nerve cells connected to one another by dendrites and axons.
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Every time we think, move, feel or remember something, our neurons are at work"
(Grabianowski 1).
Brain-computer interfaces provide a wide array of possibilities for people with physical disabilities. This could change the lives of thousands, think of all the people suffering from illnesses or complications such as paralysis, locked in syndrome, stroke or severe brain trauma. B...
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...rosthetic Hand”. University of Chicago Medical Center, Oct. 14, 2013. sciencedaily.com. April 6, 2014.
Castillo, Michelle. “Quadriplegic Woman Uses Brain to Drink Coffee with Help from Robotic Arm”. CBS News, May 16, 2012. cbsnew.com. April 6, 2014
Grabianowski, Ed. “How Brain-Computer Interface Work”. How Stuff Works .Inc, Nov. 2, 2007. howstuffworks.com. Mar. 31, 2014
Kacapyr, Vasyl. “Brain Signals More Paralyzed Limbs in New Experiment”. Cornell University, Feb. 19, 2014. sciencedaily.com. April 6, 2014
Kotchetkov, Ivan. Hwang, Brian. Appelboom, Geoffrey. Kellner, Christopher. Connoly, Sander Jr. “Brain-Computer Interfaces: Military, Neurosurgical, & Ethical Perspective”. American Association of Neurological Surgeons, 2010. medscape.com. April 6, 2014
Wilson, L. Richard. “Ethical Issue of Brain Computer Interfaces (BCI)”. N.p. n.d. iacap.org. April 6, 2014
Scientists are on the brink of doing the unthinkable-replenishing the brains of people who have suffered strokes or head injuries to make them whole again. If that is not astonishing enough, they think they may be able to reverse paralysis. The door is at last open to lifting the terrifying sentence these disorders still decree-loss of physical function, cognitive skills, memory, and personality.
Even if optogenetics remains as purely a research tool and does not give rise to beneficial effects directly in our species, it has still offered humans an unparalleled look into the function and dysfunction of the nervous system. Optogenetics has been adopted in laboratories around the world and enabled scientists to increase or decrease the activity of exclusive brain expanses on command. Great insight has been obtained through the use of this research tool and a great deal more
...ment and to focus more on the different non-invasive interfaces which will help us deal with the versatility issues of the device. Finally, I recommend that the group looks further into the different interfaces and materials that prosthetics can be used combined with in order to erase the control issue that come with prosthetics.
Technology and the Brain As a college student, using the internet and technology is a daily task. Everything you need for your classes: schedules, homework, quizzes, and even tests are all online. The debate on technology and the brain suggests that technology may have an effect on the brain, effect multi-tasking, and cause addiction. Brain Activity
In persons suffering from epilepsy, the brain waves, electrical activity in the part of the brain called the cerebral cortex, have a characteristically abnormal rhythm produced by excessive electrical discharges in the nerve cells. Because these wave patterns differ markedly according to their specific source, a recording of the brain waves, known as an electroencephalogram (EEG) is important in the diagnosis and study of the disorder. Diagnosis also requires a thorough medical history describing seizure characteristics and frequency.
In Daniel Dennett’s piece of literature “Where Am I” tells the hypothetical scenario of Dennett who is approached by the pentagon to undergo a dangerous mission where he is asked to retrieve a radioactive warhead lodged deep underground. In order to retrieve the radioactive warhead, he must undergo a brain operation to fully remove the brain as the waves from the warhead only affect the brain.(Page 34) Along with the radioactivity affecting the brain, the pentagon wanted to monitor the brains activity while underground, thus being another reason for the operation. As Dennett is underground working on the warhead, his radio transmitters sending signals between his brain and his body began to fail which causes him to lose control and sensation. The only thing that he has to prove his existence is the capability to think. When he arrives back at the home of where his brain is being kept, the vat, he is shown a new body armed with receptors and transmitters linked to his brain. Dennett also discovers a team of scientists overseeing the mission had made a computerized copy of his brain and functions. Being able to switch from sending and receiving signal from the computerized brain and then the actual brain, Dennett essentially has two brains sending signal to a body. A more unsettling development arises in the chance of one brain falling separate from the other brain, but not connected to any body at all. Which would cause the brain to exist without the original body. Dennett finally decided to lock up both brains in the scientist’s laboratory and go on with life, just switching brains via a portable control he carries with him.
Neuroscience refers to “the scientific study of the nervous system” It has been responsible for breakthroughs involving molecular, cellular, developmental, and medical aspects of human behaviors. Various organizations such as the “International society for neurochemistry” and the “European Brain and behavior Society” exist today to further the study of the nervous system and expand human understanding of medical and psychological ailments. The actual study of the nervous system dates all the way back to ancient Egypt where surgeons would drill holes into the human skull in order to alleviate a variety of aliments. The second half of the 20th century furthered the study of neuroscience via advancements in Molecular biology, and electrophysiology. These advancements are currently being used to study potential solutions to diseases such as (ALS) amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, strokes, and brain trauma. This research is funded by credible organizations such as the (NIH) National Institute of Health and the “National S...
My purpose is to initiate a discussion of the ethics of implanting computer chips in the brain and to raise some initial ethical and social questions. Computer scientists predict that within the next twenty years neural interfaces will be designed that will not only increase the dynamic range of senses, but will also enhance memory and enable "cyberthink" — invisible communication with others. This technology will facilitate consistent and constant access to information when and where it is needed. The ethical evaluation in this paper focuses on issues of safely and informed consent, issues of manufacturing and scientific responsibility, anxieties about the psychological impacts of enhancing human nature, worries about possible usage in children, and most troubling, issues of privacy and autonomy. Inasmuch as this technology is fraught with perilous implications for radically changing human nature, for invasions of privacy and for governmental control of individuals, public discussion of its benefits and burdens should be initiated, and policy decisions should be made as to whether its development should be proscribed or regulated, rather than left to happenstance, experts and the vagaries of the commercial market.
The brain is the control center of the human body. It sends and receives millions of signals every second, day and night, in the form of hormones, nerve impulses, and chemical messengers. This exchange of information makes us move, eat, sleep, and think.
Perry, Bruce, 1999. ECT Interview: Bruce Perry Discusses the Effects of Technology on the Brain.
Electroencephalography is a cheap non-invasive technique which has become widely used in studying brain activity to measure the electric potential differences on the scalp produced by the active cortical neurons (5).
The Principles of Psychology. Toronto, Ontario: York University. L. R. Hochberg, M. D. (2006). Neuronal ensemble control of prosthetic devices in a human with tetraplegia. Nature, 164-71.
The human body is divided into many different parts called organs. All of the parts are controlled by an organ called the brain, which is located in the head. The brain weighs about 2. 75 pounds, and has a whitish-pink appearance. The brain is made up of many cells, and is the control centre of the body. The brain flashes messages out to all the other parts of the body.
"Microchip Implants Closer to reality." The Futurist. 33.8 (1999): 9. Proquest Platinum. Proquest Information and Learning Co. Glenwood High School Lib., Chatham, IL 25 Oct. 2004
In the past few decades we have seen how computers are becoming more and more advance, challenging the abilities of the human brain. We have seen computers doing complex assignments like launching of a rocket or analysis from outer space. But the human brain is responsible for, thought, feelings, creativity, and other qualities that make us humans. So the brain has to be more complex and more complete than any computer. Besides if the brain created the computer, the computer cannot be better than the brain. There are many differences between the human brain and the computer, for example, the capacity to learn new things. Even the most advance computer can never learn like a human does. While we might be able to install new information onto a computer it can never learn new material by itself. Also computers are limited to what they “learn”, depending on the memory left or space in the hard disk not like the human brain which is constantly learning everyday. Computers can neither make judgments on what they are “learning” or disagree with the new material. They must accept into their memory what it’s being programmed onto them. Besides everything that is found in a computer is based on what the human brain has acquired though experience.