Political Quotes

“last spring Cathy Hutchison picked up a cup of coffee and took a sip. Now, why have I come to the floor of the Senate to talk about Cathy Hutchison picking up a cup of coffee last spring and taking a sip? Because 15 years earlier, Cathy Hutchison was working in her garden when she suffered a stroke that left her paralyzed. Cathy did not just lose the ability to use her arms and legs, she also lost the ability to speak. I am sorry to say this condition is not unique to Cathy. It happens regularly enough that there is a medical term for it, locked-in syndrome. That is how Cathy lived for nearly 15 years: alert and mentally sharp but unable to move or speak, a prisoner in her own body. All of this changed last spring when, for the first time in nearly 15 years, Cathy picked up that cup of coffee and took a sip. Cathy Hutchison is a patient enrolled in a clinical trial at Brown University in Providence, RI. They are testing a neural interface device known as BrainGate. BrainGate works by placing a small sensor on the brain. The sensor is connected to a computer that interprets the brain's signals to control a specially designed robotic arm. The university researchers asked Cathy to imagine that she was moving her arm in different directions. Then they monitored which neurons fired for those corresponding movements, all in her imagination. Using this brain wave information, researchers attached a robotic arm to the computer.…”