Brain-Computer Interfaces

"...Nagle was given a general anaesthetic before a disc the size of a poker chip was cut from his skull. After making an incision in the brain's protective membrane, a tiny array of 96 hair-thin electrodes, each protruding about a millimetre, was pressed onto the surface of his brain, just above a region of the sensory motor cortex that is home to the neuronal circuitry governing arm and hand movement. With the electrodes in position, the bony disc was replaced, leaving room for a tiny wire to connect the electrodes to a metal plate the size of a 10p piece that sits on Nagle's head like a button.

To read brain signals from Nagle's motor cortex, Donoghue's researchers attach an amplifier to the metallic button on his head and run a cable to a computer. When he's hooked up, the tiny voltages of the sparking neurons beneath the electrodes produce a series of brainwaves that dance on the computer screen."

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What a sad statment about modern life "...he can use computer software to answer emails, and if he can do that, he could be employed."