Using monkeys, scientists show that thoughts can move a paralysed limb

Scientists working to find a paralysis cure have shown how a monkey can use only its thoughts, transferred by electrodes, to manipulate a sleeping fellow primate's arm to do its bidding.

The lab experiment, in which a fully sedated rhesus monkey's hand moved a joystick to perform tasks at the other monkey's command, was designed to simulate full paralysis - the brain completely disconnected from the muscle it seeks to control.

"We demonstrate that a subject can control a paralysed limb purely with its thoughts," said the report's co-author Maryam Shanechi of Cornell University's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

"[The discovery] could have the potential to help paralysed patients regain control of their own limbs."

In the study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, a team of engineers and neuroscientists used electrodes to connect the brain of one monkey to the spinal cord of another via a computer that decoded and relayed the neural signals.

The first monkey, dubbed the "master", was placed in a special chair before a computer screen that showed a cursor and a green circle that alternated between two spots. The monkey's head was restrained.