The College Fix

People packed into the Marriott Library on Wednesday to learn a new method to improve quality of life through neuroscience and robotics.

Yoky Matsuoka, a scientist researching nerobiotics, was the presenter at the 17th annual Gould Lecture.

Matsuoka has used neurobiotics to create artificial limbs that people will one day be able to control with their thoughts, in hopes of improving the lives of people with disabilities.

Combining her interest in tennis with an understanding of the human body, Matsuoka began working on a robot that could play tennis and would be able to change its skill level. She worked on this robot throughout her graduate career. In doing so, she realized that her passion was more about understanding human beings and researching the possibilities of building a device that was capable of that level of intelligence.

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When people suffer spinal cord injuries, the connection between the brain and the spinal cord becomes severed and patients lose the ability to control their limbs, depending on where the break is located. Matsuoka is working to bridge the broken gap.

Doctors implant chips in patients’ brains and hook them up to a computer so the patients can control a cursor on a screen with their thoughts. This allows them to communicate with others when they had previously been unable to and seek help when needed.

“Of course there is other research that can be done with stem cells to do it chemically, but at this point, this is what is really helping people with spinal cord injuries,” Matsuoka said

Read the full story at the Daily Utah Chronicle.

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