The goal in these approaches is ultimately to implant a small microelectrode array, with batteries and a transmitter the size of a baby’s fingernail, in the motor cortex. A small computer could be connected either to a robotic arm or wirelessly to a wheelchair control or to electrodes implanted in muscles to trigger movements. Some scientists hope to develop a technology less invasive than microelectrodes to detect neuronal firing— possibly a variant of TMS, or a device Taub and colleagues are developing to detect changes in brain waves.
