Imagine a prosthetic device capable of restoring
decision-making in people who have reduced capacity due to brain disease or
injury. While this may sound like science fiction, researchers at Wake Forest
Baptist Medical Center have proven for the first time that it is possible in
non-human primates, and believe that one day it will be possible in people.
In essence, the scientists used an electronic prosthetic
system to tap into existing circuitry in the brain at the cellular level and
record the firing patterns of multiple neurons in the prefrontal cortex, the
part of the brain involved in decision-making.