Scientists have come up with a new wireless brain-machine interface (BMI) that can let monkeys control a wheelchair with their minds. A latest Duke University-led study appeared in Nature's Scientific Reports has revealed how the research team developed the brain-machine interface.

The researchers fixed two microelectrode arrays in the brains of two rhesus monkeys. They rooted them in the sites responsible for limb movement and planning. Thereafter, the wireless BMI changed their cortical activity for directing the speed and direction of the robotic wheelchair.

The research holds a lot of significance as it may eventually be used in helping paralyzed people move around using either a high-tech wheelchair or upgraded intelligent robotic devices.

Firstly, the researchers made the monkeys familiar with the technology by making them roam around with the wheelchairs. The brain activity of the monkeys was noted when this happened, and the data was ultimately used in creating an algorithm to give instruction to steer the chair.

After these initial tests, they focused on brain control, observing how the test subjects would be able to manage the device by themselves. Each monkey wheel was placed towards a fruit bowl before them, with the starting position of the animal in the room altering at the time of different tests. During every test, the fruit stayed in the same position.

It turned out that monkeys excel in controlling mind, as they adapted to the technology in no time.

The study said that prolonged BMI use results into the assimilation of the artificial tool within the body representations present in the subject's cortex. Proof of such integration was reported earlier in the case of manually controlled wheelchairs.