In article <2pea99$3tb at news.cc.oberlin.edu>,
<sas9557 at ocvaxa.cc.oberlin.edu> wrote:
>In article <Coo3sn.62s at undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca>,
>mwtilden at math.uwaterloo.ca (Mark W. Tilden) writes:
>>>>Forgive me if this question is improperly worded, but has any work been
>>done with the idea of running insulated platinum wires between neural
>>structures in the body, with a hope to restoring or attenuating motor
>>functions in the body or cognitive functions in the brain?
>>>(Stuff deleted)
>>Actually, I worked in a lab at NIH this winter, and I ran across a group
>in NINDS that was working on a project very smilar to what you have
>suggested. They were using a grid of (I think) iridium-coated gold wires
>implanted in the occipital cortex of macaques to simulate vision.
>(More stuff deleted)
Along similar lines, given the real-time imaging capability of PET and
MRI, is there any work investigating reward mechanisms in cognition?
For example, an implant providing positive reinforcement on recognition
of a target mental state ought to habituate that mental state. Thus
apes, or humans, could be conditioned to spend the majority of their
conscious time in, say, a problem solving state or a learning state.
Gregory Bloom
gbloom at nyx.cs.du.edu