It may sound like the kind of mind control seen in sci-fi film Avatar, but scientists working on a cure for paralysis¹（麻痹，无力） have successfully used the thoughts of one monkey to control the movement of another. 

 

The study's co-author, Maryam Shanechi of Cornell University's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said: We demonstrate that a subject can control a paralysed limb purely³ with its thoughts.'

 

The discovery 'could have the potential to help paralysed patients regain⁴ control of their own limbs,' she added.

 

The master had a brain chip implanted that could monitor the activity of up to 100 neurons.

 

During training, the physical actions of the monkey were matched up with the patterns of electrical activity in the neurons.

 

The avatar had 36 electrodes implanted in the spinal⁵ cord and tests were performed to see how stimulating⁶ different combinations of electrodes affected⁷ movement.

 

The two monkeys were then hooked up so that the brain scans in one controlled movements in real time in the other.

 

A computer then decoded⁸ and relayed neural⁹ signals between the two. 

 

The first monkey, dubbed¹⁰ the 'master', was restrained in a special chair in front of a computer screen showing a cursor（光标，游尺） and a green circle alternating between two spots. 

 

The second animal, or 'avatar', was fully² sedated¹¹ in a separate enclosure with its arm strapped¹² to a 360-degree joystick. 

 

This joystick was used to move the cursor, and chase the circular target, on the screen in front of the 'master.'

 

As the 'master' thought of moving the cursor, its brain signals were decoded to determine which of the two targets it had in mind.

 

This data was relayed in real-time to the spinal cord of the sleeping avatar, whose arm manipulated the joystick accordingly.

 

Every time the cursor hit its target, the master received a squirt of juice as reward.

 

In 98% of tests, the master could correctly control the avatar's arm.

 

One of the researchers said: "The goal is to take people with brain stem or spinal cord paralysis and bypass the injury.

 

"The hope is ultimately to get completely natural movement, I think it's theoretically possible, but it will require an exponential additional effort to get to that point."

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