Scott Mackler

The PT site Evidence in Motion posted about Scott Mackler, a neuroscientist with ALS. As it turns out, Scott Mackler is married to a PT researcher, Lynn Snyder-Mackler.

The CBS video, Brain Power, features brain-computer interface technology; Scott, unable to move anything but his mouth, eyes, and thoughts, can select letters from a screen by focusing on a particular letter that he wants: when a random flash highlights that particular letter, his thought, "That's the one I want," and whatever change in electrical potential that his selection creates, effectively communicates itself to the computer through an array of electrodes gelled to his scalp through a cap, and pegs the letter into a window. Then he can move on and peg the next letter. In this way, Scott can express himself and continue work as a neuroscientist.

(Thoughts move. Thoughts are verbs, not nouns. They move - they don't just sit there, being mere nouns. This is one good way that "feeling of certainty" discussed by Robert Burton in his book, On Being Certain, pays off! I am quite certain about that. Almost entirely certain, in fact.)

Also featured in the video we see monkey brain/robot arm interface technology, and an implant into the motor cortex of Cathy, a woman with locked-in syndrome, which gives her an opportunity to communicate with others, control a wheelchair, play music, and adjust the temperature and light level in her home, by moving a computer cursor across a screen, using only her thoughts about moving her hand.


Related blog posts:

1. Smart Prosthetics, Smart Nerves, Smart Brains
2. More Smartness
3. Monkey Robotics
4. Monkey intentions and control of a robotic arm
5. Ginger Campbell's podcast #43, interview with Robert Burton about his book, On Being Certain
6. Harriet Hall's review of the same book

November 4 Update:

7. Mo's Neurophilosophy post about this same topic - Brain Power