Miguel Nicolelis
Miguel Nicolelis, MD, PhD, is a Brazilian scientist best known for his pioneering work in "reading monkey thought". He implanted electrode arrays into the monkey brain that were able to detect monkey's motor intent and thus able to control reaching and grasping movements performed by a robotic arm. This was possible by decoding signals og hundreds of neurons recorded in volitional areas of the cerebral cortex while the monkey played with a hand-held joystick that was originally used to move the robot.
Nicolelis received an M.D. degree from University of Sao Paulo Medical School in 1984. He got a Phd in 1988/89 at the Institute of Biomedical Science, University of Sao Paulo.
Currently, Nicolelis is a Professor and Co-Director at Neurobiology Biomedical Engineering and Psychological and Brain Sciences, Center for Neuroengineering, Duke University Medical Center (since 2001).
External Links
- Nicolelis Lab: http://www.nicolelislab.net
- CV and awards: http://www.nicolelislab.net/NLNet/Load/CVs/Nicolelis_CV.pdf
- New Scientist 2003: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4262
- New Scientist 2004: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18224412.400
Selected Publications on Brain-Machine Interface
- Lebedev, M.A., Carmena, J.M., O’Doherty, J.E., Zacksenhouse, M., Henriquez, C.S., Principe, J.C., Nicolelis, M.A.L. (2005) Cortical ensemble adaptation to represent actuators controlled by a brain machine interface. J. Neurosci. 25: 4681-4693.
- Santucci, D.M., Kralik, J.D., Lebedev , M.A., Nicolelis, M.A.L. (2005) Frontal and parietal cortical ensembles predict single-trial muscle activity during reaching movements. Eur. J. Neurosci., 22: 1529-1540.
- Lebedev, M.A., Messinger, A., Kralik, J.D., Wise, S.P. (2004) Representation of attended versus remembered locations in prefrontal cortex. PLoS Biology, 2: 1919-1935.
- Carmena, J.M., Lebedev, M.A., Crist, R.E., O’Doherty, J.E., Santucci, D.M., Dimitrov, D.F., Patil, P.G., Henriquez, C.S., Nicolelis, M.A.L. (2003) Learning to control a brain-machine interface for reaching and grasping by primates. PLoS Biology, 1: 193-208.
- Nicolelis MA (2003) Brain-machine interfaces to restore motor function and probe neural circuits. Nat Rev Neurosci. 4: 417-422.
- Wessberg J, Stambaugh CR, Kralik JD, Beck PD, Laubach M, Chapin JK, Kim J, Biggs SJ, Srinivasan MA, Nicolelis MA. (2000) Real-time prediction of hand trajectory by ensembles of cortical neurons in primates. Nature 16: 361-365.