What kind of shape is YOUR brain in? Have you had an injury that
has affected the way it functions? (NOTE: Subscribers can still
listen to these shows). Help is on the way: researchers have
created a prosthetic device capable of restoring decision-making
in people who have reduced capacity due to brain disease or
injury. It works in non-human primates, and they believe that
one day it will be possible in people. This could be the END of
Alzheimer's. The scientists used an electronic prosthetic system
to tap into existing circuitry in the brain at the cellular
level and record the firing patterns of multiple neurons in the
prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain involved in decision-
making. They then “played” that recording back to the same brain
area to electrically stimulate decision-based neural activity.
Not only did it restore function, in some cases, it also
improved it. In the study, the scientists trained five monkeys
to match multiple images on a computer screen until they were
correct 70 to 75% of t