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Electrodes implanted in the brain can send signals that make a monkey
think its finger has been touched. The experiment suggests ways to build
artificial hands or arms that restore a feeling of touch to users.
G. TABOT ET AL/PNAS 2013
13 comments:
This article was especially informing and at the same time engaging. I like how the scientists developed a way of how to fool monkeys that they had actually touched something! This is very good because we can give this to people that have lost their sense of touch. This can make them happier! When we find out how to do this, those without touch can be glad. Although making an invention is hard, you can always do it. For the past blog articles, this was exactly the same case. One of the articles was about a man named William Pollack that found a vaccine that saved many babies. Another article was when pictures showed that a child had cancer. In the end, they all found a solution, so we can do the same thing in this case! This article uses motive in it. The thing that causes the monkeys to think that they have touched something is that the hand sends signals to the brain to announce contact was made. But that feeling of touch may not require making actual contact, tests in monkeys now show. Zapping brain cells can fool the animal into thinking its finger had touched something. I liked how this article had words at the end that were called power words. They had the words and their definition there. I liked this because whenever I came across a word I didn’t know, I would look at the power words. This was a great article because of the way it stated the information, and what kind of information it had. I would rate this article a 10 out of 10.
This educational article was cool to read. The idea that they used the electrodes to zap their nerves was not only clever and genius, but it also made perfect sense. I also wonder, why did they choose to conduct this experiment on rhesus monkeys? Why not squirrel monkeys, or chimpanzees, or any other primate? Are rhesus monkey supposedly smarter than most primates, is this why they chose this animal?
I both agree and disagree at the same time with Ben. If I had been given an opportunity to restore my sense of touch I would be torn whether to take it or not. I would be excited and happy to be able to, but then again feel artificial and like a robot.
Anyways, back to the article. I liked the concepts it talked about and thought it was interesting. I like the included "Power Words" section and that it was worded nicely for young readers. I would like to see more scientific articles from this web site.
This article is really interesting because it is amazing that your sense of touch is really just your brain waves. I wonder what its like to not have a sense of touch like mentioned in the article. I think if we had prosthetic limbs that could have working senses, it would be very different. If you have seen the show Almost Human, he has a prosthetic leg and I had been wondering how that could ever be possible.
I find the idea of restoring the sense of touch through a new kind of prosthetic limb very interesting. If I lost an arm or was paralyzed, I would probably accept the artificial replacement. Though it may help me interact in my everyday life, a concern would be that it might also feel so fake that I would not enjoy and appreciate it. I am torn about whether or not I would choose to use this new device. In the future, once this idea is made a reality, I think that it could be a great success, and help many people worldwide.
This was a great article! I enjoyed the fact that this study could benefit many people in various ways. However, I don't think we are ready to test this on humans yet. It seems like we are not quite clear on how much it affects the monkey's brain. It could probably affect it in some way that we cannot sense. If this does work, though, it could be great. A sense of touch is a very important thing to us humans. I think that I would definitely use this new technology if I had an artificial arm. Though it may feel fake, it is better than not being able to feel at all. Also, if you had a fake limb, it would already be artificial, so it is better just to take advantage of the experiments the scientists are doing. I was researching on Lilah's question about rhesus monkeys, and I found some answers. Rhesus monkeys are used for many scientific and medical researches. For example, the antigens in the Rheseus monkey's blood helped discover the different human blood type groups. Also, they were sent to space before humans ever ventured beyond the earth. Anyhow, I think that this is a good experiment, and it could change many peoples' lives.
This article really informed me about how lucky I am for not having artificial limbs. I can't imagine if I couldn't be able to touch anything! In the article it says that touching is crucial to most everyday tasks. I really would have a hard time being at school without being able to touch my pencil or computer. I think that science has really made an amazing breakthrough by making this kind of artificial limb for paralyzed people.
I really enjoyed this article. This could mean huge developments for people without a sense of touch. For those unlucky people who lose their sense of touch. It was extremely interesting that the sense of touch doesn't require someone to actually be touched. All you have to do zap the brain cells to trick them. I do wonder how you could get this to happen if you were born without hands/arms. Would you feel it in the remainder of your arm? Also, how does this restore a sense of touch? When you are walking on rocks barefoot, scientists can't just zap your brain every time you take a step. One other interesting thing about limbs is phantom. This is an illusion that makes the person think that their missing limb is fully functioning.
Expanding on what Angela said, Rhesus monkeys developed the RH factor in your blood. Erica also mentioned something about William Pollack. He worked with these factors to cure a disease in which the woman giving birth has an RH negative, and the baby has an RH positive. This can lead to death of the baby or mother. As you can see, Rhesus monkeys are crucial to the scientific word.
I found this article to be very interesting, and it got me thinking... Since we can manipulate brain waves to think we have touched something, why can't we manipulate your hearing, or sight, or taste, or any of your senses. If you could then you could have so much fun with it. You could manipulate your brain to thinking you are someplace, with all your senses and everything, while you are actually hooked up to a machince that recreats the senery of where you are. You could have so much fun with this!!! You could go to Paris, anywhere, so long as the machine has visuall imagry of the place. YOU COULD GO SKYDIVING if you wanted to. Well anyway someday when I grow up I might try to build this, but for now, i'll just have to dream about it.
I thought this article was really fascinating. I think it’s amazing that they have developed this way of making the animal feel as if it is touching something, even when it is not. However, as I was reading this article, I thought of a few questions. First, I was wondering if these scientists have thought about temperature. Can they make the monkey feel temperature as well? Can the monkey feel how hot or cold what they are supposedly touching is? In addition to this question, I want to know how many people it would benefit if scientists could figure out a way to use this technology for amputees.
This article showed me two things. First off, Silman Bensmaia is a genius. Second, touch is a lot more important than we think it is. Come to think about it, your pretty much always touching something unless you are floating. Also, you probably use your sense of touch for special abilities about 1/4 of the day. On the other hand how they planted electrodes in the animals brains, and could mimic the natural signal of the brain!
I found it interesting how this article talks about people who have artificial limbs cannot feel anything. That is sad and can be a matter of life and death. But, this idea of how to fix this, though it has not come through seems like a very good idea. Even though super-sensory device technologies haven’t been invented yet, I hope that it will soon be found how to make them. I think that using a monkey definitely helped them in finding results. But, we are still not sure whether on not human versus monkey “sensors” work the same way. I also found it interesting that people can trick the brain cells into thinking that you have touched something, even though you really hadn’t. It was helpful to find the “Power Words” at the bottom to help me understand words I didn’t know. I also found this TED talk by Katherine Kuchenbecker with a similar idea about feeling things without actually touching them. http://www.ted.com/talks/katherine_kuchenbecker_the_technology_of_touch.html
This article was very interesting in that this discovery could one day cause people who have lost/been born without a certain limb. If this does become an option for these people to perform everyday necessities. I was wondering, if these electric shocks can tell the person if something/someone is touching them, could they then make robots in the shape of a dog or cat that could perform the same shock while going around with them the entire day? Like a watch dog follows its owner to help with loss of sight/sound.
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