Gesturing in the Brain

Thanks to my friend Betsey who alerted me to this article in the New York times on 7/13/06, "Paralyzed Man Uses Thoughts to Move a Cursor." With the help of an implant he was able in about 4 days to learn how to control "movements" to do simple computer tasks (open email, play a video game, draw a circle) by imagining moving his arm. The implant reads the electrical signals emitted by the brain's neurons. Brain science, and especially these mysterious neurons, are becoming more and more fascinating. I may start with Neuroscience for Kids, since my science is pretty woefully out of date. And then there is this NOVA segment on Mirror Neurons, the subject of a previous post here.