Monkeys control two arms in virtual reality

After recording and decoding the activity of sets of almost 500 brain cells in two monkeys, researchers developed a brain-computer interface that allowed the animals to move both arms of a virtual avatar.

Duke Center for Neuroengineering

When connected to a computer, a monkey’s brain can move two virtual arms at the same time, a new study finds.

Connecting the human brain to a computer has the potential to help paralyzed and immobilized individuals to control external devices, such as a robotic arm. Brain-computer interfaces have provided control of a single prosthetic arm but never two arms at the same time.

By recording and decoding the activity of sets of almost 500 brain cells in two monkeys, researchers were able to develop a brain-computer interface that could control two arms simultaneously.

Each monkey learned to use only its brain to move two virtual avatar arms within 15 days of training, the team reports November 6 in Science Translational Medicine.

Ashley Yeager is the associate news editor at Science News. She has worked at The Scientist, the Simons Foundation, Duke University and the W.M. Keck Observatory, and was the web producer for Science News from 2013 to 2015. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT.

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