{"587479":{"#nid":"587479","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"How Brain-Machine Interfaces Engage Neural Plasticity","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EOver the past year, scientists have made great strides in the development of brain-machine interfaces (BMIs), wired external devices that are controlled solely by brain activity [see\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.dana.org\/News\/Details.aspx?id=43272\u0022\u003E\u0026ldquo;\u003Cem\u003ERoadmapping the Adoption of Brain-Machine Interfaces\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E]. Last October, Nathan Copeland, a man who had been paralyzed from the chest down for more than 10 years,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.wired.com\/2016\/10\/obama-geeks-brain-controlled-robotic-arm-feels\/\u0022\u003Emade headlines when he fist-bumped\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;President Obama with a BMI-controlled robotic arm using only his thoughts. As BMI-related technologies and neuroprosthetics become more sophisticated, researchers are learning that these tools can make some fascinating changes to the brain, engaging its natural plasticity in sometimes unanticipated ways. Understanding those changes to underlying plasticity, some say, could offer clues to how to rewire and rehabilitate the damaged brain\u0026mdash;perhaps even without the need of external hardware.\u003Cstrong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003EProsthetics, even without the addition of a BMI component, can alter the brain\u0026rsquo;s connections, says Lewis Wheaton, director of the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/thecmclab.com\/\u0022\u003ECognitive Motor Control Lab\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;at the Georgia Institute of Technology says.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"30678","created_gmt":"2017-02-15 18:15:41","changed_gmt":"2017-02-15 18:17:58","author":"A. Maureen Rouhi","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"Amirali Aghazadeh","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"http:\/\/www.dana.org\/News\/How_Brain-Machine_Interfaces_Engage_Neural_Plasticity\/","dateline":{"date":"2017-02-15T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2017-02-15T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"566441":{"id":"566441","type":"image","title":"Lewis Wheaton","body":null,"created":"1471905142","gmt_created":"2016-08-22 22:32:22","changed":"1475895371","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:56:11","alt":"Lewis Wheaton","file":{"fid":"206929","name":"lewis.wheaton.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/lewis.wheaton.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/lewis.wheaton.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":30223,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/lewis.wheaton.jpg?itok=ywGzE6YA"}}},"media_ids":["566441"],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"138","name":"Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"}],"keywords":[{"id":"68441","name":"Lewis Wheaton"},{"id":"173477","name":"brain-machine interfaces"},{"id":"173478","name":"neural plasticity"},{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"166882","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}