Seite - 70 - in Cyborg Mind - What Brain–Computer and Mind–Cyberspace Interfaces Mean for Cyberneuroethics

70 • Cyborg Mind Therapeutic Applications of Feedback Neuronal Interfaces As already indicated, by studying the relationship between brain signals, thoughts and intentions to undertake an action, brain imaging procedures may be used to externalise brain activity in a noninvasive manner. This may be useful when a person is unable to express his or her thoughts or intentions through normal channels such as speech or through certain gestures. Neuroimaging analyses brain structures and activity in areas of the brain associated with large groups of neurons, enabling a limited kind of ‘brain reading’ where only a small number of thoughts or actions are considered. These have also led to an explosion of neurological investigations relating to cognitive processes in the human brain.92 The general aim of this research is to understand how mental processes take place in the brain and how these give rise to observable behaviour in terms of speech, thoughts, perception and motor actions or other behaviours. This can then be used to study certain brain dysfunctions associated with neurological or psychiatric disease.93 Moreover, with MRI and PET, it is pos- sible to localise nervous activity to within a few cubic millimetres, which is useful in terms of identifying which parts of the brain are involved in which kinds of mental activity. Assistive Technologies The most frequently used definition of assisted technologies was given by the U.S. Technology-Related Assistance of Individuals with Disability Act of 1988 as ‘any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disability’.94 In this regard, one of the first instances where neuronal feedback interfaces were considered was with patients who have a normally functioning brain, but experience dysfunction or paralysis in a certain part of their bodies. These included persons who still have a capacity for planning and imagin- ing movement, 95 such as those suffering from spinal cord injury, stroke or amputation.96 Accordingly, these new interfaces were developed with the aim of obtaining data from their neuronal networks and transmitting this to an appliance in order to try and restore movement or provide help with daily living.97 Back in 2003, the media reported the case of a former lawyer, Hans-Peter Salzmann, who had Lou Gehrig’s disease, which gradually destroyed all vol- untary movement.98 His symptoms had developed to the point where his mind was described as being locked inside a paralysed body that needed a res- pirator to enable breathing. But he had been taught to type on his computer This open access edition has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale.