If you want something done right, do it yourself. At least that's what Phil Kennedy, a neurologist and inventor, did, putting himself under the knife to implant electrodes into his brain in an attempt to establish a connection between the motor cortex and a computer.
Of course, he didn't cut himself open, instead paying $25,000 to a surgeon in Central America to open up his head.
Kennedy has been given credit for developing a very invasive human brain-computer interface, which literally consists of wires being placed inside the brain that are attached to a computer. He is also known for helping a paralyzed patient to move a computer cursor by thinking.
Kennedy himself presented his new findings at the Society for Neuroscience, which is located in Chicago. The findings were, however, very concerning for some because of the fact that, by arranging for such a surgery to be performed on a completely healthy person — even himself — he was violating the doctor's oath. Kennedy, however, thought that his research would die after 29 years of being conducted, unless he did something serious to keep it going.
Without FDA permission to use the brain implants, Kennedy was stuck. He also was experiencing difficulty working with patients who couldn't speak, because of the fact that they couldn't convey how they were actually feeling and what they were thinking. Kennedy became convinced that he needed to find patients who could speak. When he had no luck finding such patients, he simply decided to have the surgery performed on himself.
Unfortunately, the surgery wasn't completely smooth-sailing. When Kennedy awoke, he discovered he had lost the ability to speak. Despite this, he kept cool, saying that considering the fact that he had invented the surgery, he knew what would happen. While these side effects were serious, he regained the ability to speak and had a second surgery so that the electrodes could be properly inserted.
It seems as though the results were very encouraging for Kennedy, who said that he was able to find that combinations of 65 different neurons that were being detected were firing impulses when he made certain sounds. These neurons also fired when he imagined making the sounds, a finding that could prove very useful in future research.
While Kennedy was able to gather some data, he had originally hoped to have the electrodes in for years, however, considering complications of the surgery, with the incisions not closing entirely after the electrodes were implanted, he was forced to have them removed after a few weeks.
In an interview with MIT Technology Review, Kennedy said that, since he got away with what he did, he was happy. While he had some scars to show, he had also gained some valuable data that could prove very useful in his research.
Photo: dierk schaefer | Flickr
