The team recorded the activity of nerve cells at a site responsible for moving the monkey's hand to the left. Whenever those nerves fired, the chip automatically delivered a stimulus to the second site, responsible for moving the monkey's hand to the right.
Under normal circumstances, these two sites would not be connected. But after a few days, the researchers conducted a test suggesting that the underlying neural connection between the two sites had been strengthened.
The test involved sending a series of electrical pulses to the original site. After the pulses, the monkey's hand moved right instead of left. The change may have been produced because the chip synchronized the activity between the two sites.
However, according to Schwartz, the test was "suggestive but not conclusive."
"They don't know why it happened or how it happened," said Schwartz. And it will take much more experimentation to confirm the artificial stimulus reinforced the connection, he said.
Jackson and his team hope to take the experiments further by establishing connections between more distant neural sites, such as between the brain and the spinal cord.
