Comments on: Harnessing The Power Of The Brain

Scott Pelley Reports How Brain Computer Interface May Help The Paralyzed In The Future

[renee_blake]

After seeing your recent segment about the brain and the wonders it can perform in sync with computers, I would like to ask some of the questions that did not get asked in this segment and point out some of the video that was not shown.

Despite my fascination with the brain, and my wish that such a possibility could have been available for my father after he suffered a massive stroke 14 years ago and died this past February, without ever being able to walk again, I also must give voice to the voiceless in the %u2018person%u2019 of the monkey you showed briefly and the many other animals you did not show or credit, who participated in the discovery/creation of this brain-machine.

You never showed a full-on picture of the monkey. Why? Because people watching couldn%u2019t handle the fact that you supported in your piece, the complete denial of this intelligent sentient being%u2019s freedom (including being allowed to move independently) not locked into a piece of equipment? Were you afraid of what viewers might say? Were you afraid they wouldn%u2019t praise you and the scientists and the University of Pittsburgh and %u201C60 Minutes%u201D to the skies, once they realized what the %u201Ccompromises%u201D and sacrifices might be?

[iamkrista1]

I was sickened by this story and the way it glossed over the horrible abuse of these monkeys. The worst part of it all is the great irony that lies in all of this. Do we really believe that these monkeys have brains that are so similar to ours that they can do exactly the same things under these conditions and yet they don''t have the same thoughts and feelings in those same brains that cause us to value our own lives? Nothing truly good comes from true evil. And forcing suffering on innocent animals is nothing if not evil! We must not fall into the trap of believing that the ends justify the means! The means must be just!

[geribuehre]

I would like to volunteer my mom for further Braingate research. At the time she was diagnosed with ALS (August ''07) she was in perfect condition. She will be 73 on November 9th and she wants to live, my brothers and I want her to live. Since her diagnosis she has been following the instructions in a book entitled, ERIC IS WINNING. She receives detoxification/chelation treatments twice a week and consumes juiced organic fruits and vegetables. She is doing everything she can possibly do to live. She can still walk (a little) with a walker, and she can still talk (but is getting harder to understand). Recently my brother hired someone to do her juicing for her because her legs and hands have become weaker. What''s not weaker is her attitude. She''s known for her beautiful smile. In spite of her circumstances she still smiles. Everyday is a good day to her. At 120 pounds she''s the strongest person I''ve ever known. Braingate has come about in time for my mom. She will take life on the same terms that Scott and Cathy have. My brothers and I will take her life on those terms as well. We love her very much. We will do anything, anything we are asked to do to help her.
I do not have the buttons on this computer to express my desperation for your help. Dr. Wolpaw,
Dr. Schwartz, Dr. Donoghue, or Dr. Mackler, let me introduce you to my mom, please. Please contact me. please. In the meantime Thank you for what you have done and for what you are continuing to do. Thank you.

[joe68sg1]

Just think...if we would take the $10,000,000,000/month we spend in Iraq fighting an unjust war and put it into accelerating science like this where we would be now.

Someday, this technology will help us regain our top standing in the world. We can help a lot of people with this.
Think how many jobs can be created by supporting worthwhile things like this.

What a waste...perpetrated by the current republiCON administration that has no interest in helping anyone but corporations and wall st.

Power to the people, not corporations

[biglaw999]

I know someone that has been in the hospital for over 5 years. He was in a car accident and will never be able to leave the hospital or to talk again. I feel that science can do more than they have tried. I am glad to see some of the things that were on your show to see science is working on something for people to be able to feel like they belong. By the ability to communicate. Sometime we forget that just because someone can not speak or communicate that they are different. Total not true. Handycap but not different. Thank you!!!

[kmedaugh1]

Dear Dr. Jonathan Wolpaw, I have a son who has brain stem injury. He was in a car accident when he was 16 years old. He is now 24 years old. I would like to know if he would be considered for a BCI device? I would like all the available reasearch on a BCI device

This story, seen on a local channel, was at the same time exhilarating and depressing. Exhilarating for all the good that can come of these advances, exhilarating for all the empowerment these advances can give to individual human beings, and exhilarating for what is yet to come for the good of a broader mankind. Depressing for the portents of long range military killing, impersonal warfare, unrepentant thievery, robbery, assault and murder from unassailable assailants. Depressing for the likelihood of bad people acquiring good things for evil ends. Depressing because the human brain, as remarkable as it undoubtedly is, still cannot fathom the concept of unintended consequences. Depressing because we will find a way to screw it up. Oh well, it is what it is. For all those whose lives will be enriched by these developments, may you have them quickly and thoroughly and with the benefits you visualize.

[barryinbuena]

This was an amazing story! Our grandson has Spina Bifida and is unable to walk. The week he was born, my wife told his surgeon that someday they will invent a chip that will allow him to walk. After watching the show tonight, I don''t think that day is as far away as I''d once thought it was. It may start out bigger than a chip but the day is coming. These are exciting times!

[patsyb5]

Hell with the caveman, it''s so easy even a monkey can do it! Chris Reeves is jumping up and down as he sees this all unfold; after all, he predicted one day soon technology would be such that a paralyzed man would walk on his own. Kudos and God bless to all involved.

[suep1219]

To my son, who was struck down by a traumatic brain injury at the age of 18, right before going to college, the potential this kind of research holds is the chance of rebirth. It holds the possiblity of having his life back and being treated as a person and not as someone who people find to be pathetic and so different and painful to be around he should be avoided. It holds a chance of a future and a return to our society. It creates a chance to contribute to society and reach his full potential and have a family of his own and a job. Too bad the monkey can''t swing with the rest of his kind but his work with science is priceless to people who have had their lives destroyed through no fault off their own.

[mullikinm]

I am totally amazed at what the neuroscientists have done. I am a nurse and once had a patient whit Locked-In Syndrome. I did some reading on the syndrome, including the book "The Diving Bell and the Buttefly: by Jean-Dominique Bauby. At that time they were just starting to develop the computer system to allow the people with this to communica. I am happy to see the strides they have made. The one question I have is why aren''t the neuroscientists making the salaries football, baseball, basketball players make. I would uch rather be able to say I had developed the computer system that allows people with Locked In Syndrome to communicate than to be able to say I hit the winning home run in the 2008 World Series that no one was interested in enough to watch

[emmajupiter1]

These neuroscientists continue to use disturbing and outdated practices. Taking the life of an intelligent and emotional being - a monkey - in order to add to the quality of life of another living being is cruel and sickening and unethical to say the least. These animal have no voice. They are used, treated like complete ***, stripped of their quality of life and thrown away after they are used to supposidly make scientific gains. REAL scientists know and acknowledge that the use of animals in tests such as these is unnecessary and unethical. Why not use the tests on the humans that actually need them? Airing these types of programs on your show adds to peoples'' distorted views of using animals in labs for testing. IT IS NOT OKAY. How can any of the participants feel okay with what they are contributing to? This is another case of people sucking the life out of others in order to gain for themselves. Personally, if I was one of these patients, unable to communicate fully, I would rather not continue with my life. Stop making others suffer what cannot be controlled or changed.