During 2000, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States came to control a robotic arm using signals from the brain of a monkey.

Last March, in an experiment conducted by a researcher at Brown University, the cursor one screen of computer could be moved only by neural signals from a monkey whose brain was it connected. In an article published by the journal Nature, researchers at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn have announced the creation of a “ratbot”, that is to say a robotic rat by implantation of three electrodes in the brain of the animal. Two electrodes inserted in the cortical somatosensory can submit the order to turn the third, connected to the median forebrain bundle, the rewards by providing a fun electronic stimulus.

The animal is thus able to move in a very complex three-dimensional maze. This project is jointly funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The latter asked twelve million dollars in credits in 2003 for this project called “Brain Machine Interface”. For now, though researchers are still reluctant to possible developments in the application to humans, they emphasize the extraordinary potential of these experiences which ultimately could help paralyzed people regain some independence . These improvements include better involve studying the encapsulation, a phenomenon that causes brain tissue to cover the electrodes, thereby preventing the effectiveness of the latter.