Functional magnetic resonance imaging is a specialized type of an MRI brain scan. It measures what is called the haemodynamic response inside a person’s head. fMRI is able to detect the activation/deactivation patterns that are related to the regulation of the brain’s blood flow. This type of imaging has been used to diagnose a variety of brain problems including brain injuries. A brain computer interface (BCI) is a direct connection between a person’s brain and an external computer device. BCI’s are able to directly translate brain signals into electronic information. In the future brain computer interfaces may be used for people who are completely paralyzed. It could help them gain control of robotic arms or other appendages. Researchers have recently used real-time functional MRI (rtfMRI) for a
brain-computer interface. Here is the abstract for the paper.
Real-time functional MRI (rtfMRI) has been used as a basis for brain-computer interface (BCI) due to its ability to characterize region-specific brain activity in real-time. As an extension of BCI, we present an rtfMRI-based brain-machine interface (BMI) whereby 2-dimensional movement of a robotic arm was controlled by the regulation (and concurrent detection) of regional cortical activations in the primary motor areas. To do so, the subjects were engaged in the right- and/or left-hand motor imagery tasks. The blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal originating from the corresponding hand motor areas was then translated into horizontal or vertical robotic arm movement. The movement was broadcasted visually back to the subject as a feedback. We demonstrated that real-time control of the robotic arm only through the subjects’ thought processes was possible using the rtfMRI-based BMI trials.
So basically the researchers recorded brain imaging readings from an area of the motor cortex. The motor cortex is a brain region that is involved with the ability to move appendages. They then translated those signals into moving a robotic arm vertically or horizontally. This type of brain imaging would allow a paralyzed person to control a robotic arm solely through using their mind.
At this point it is difficult to say how useful this will be. Doing real time brain imaging may not be practical and may be much too expensive. It doesn’t seem like this would actually help many people who currently have brain injuries. However, if the brain imaging technique gets cheaper, then it could potentially become a viable alternative to other brain-computer interfaces.
[...] the future researchers may use real time brain imaging to shape the brain among those who are brain injured. It would allow real-time feedback. A person [...]