Miguel Nicolelis
Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Neuroengineering, Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Duke University Medical Center , USA
Breaking the Wall of Neurological Disorder. How Brain-Waves Can Steer Prosthetics.
What can a monkey’s thought tell us about Parkinson’s disease? A lot, actually. The neurobiologist Miguel Nicolelis (1961) has found a way to implant electrode arrays into a monkey’s brain to detect ist motor intent – and thus to control reaching and grasping movements performed by a robotic arm. Already Nicolelis’s multi-electrode recordings in behaving animals have revolutionized neuroscience and broken the ground for a new generation of neuroprosthetic devices.
His current experiments with brain-machine interfaces entail that we will soon be able to mitigate the clinical effects of neurological dysfunctions caused by Parkinson’s disease and spinal-cord injuries. Nicolelis, who hails from Brazil and is currently working as a professor and Co-Director of the Center for Neuoengineering at Duke University’s Medical Center, has been chosen by the journal “Science” as one of the 100 most influential scientists, for thoughts that, literally, provoke actions.
