New study demonstrates potential for neuroprosthetics

Neuroscientists at University of California, Berkeley and Champalimaud Center for the Unknown in Portugal have conducted a study that has shown that the brain is more flexible and has more potential to be trained than was previously known. The study looked at rats to help understand a process called plasticity, by which parts of the brain can be trained to do something they normally would not. For example, brain circuits that are used in learning motor skills can be used to perform purely mental tasks. These new findings could be a breakthrough in the field of neuroprosthetics. The rats were trained to adjust their thought patterns within a certain brain circuit, normally responsible for whisker twitching, to be rewarded with food. “This is something that is not natural for the rats,” said Rui Costa of the Champalimaud Neuroscience Program. “This tells us that it’s possible to craft a prosthesis in ways that do not have to mimic the anatomy of the natural motor system in order to work.”