Putting thought into clinical laboratory IT solutions

Research carried out at UCLA and Caltech could herald a new way of controlling clinical laboratory IT solutions through the power of thought.

Led by UCLA neurosurgeon Itzhak Fried, the study looked into how preferences are stored in the brain.

Individual neurons were detected for around ten per cent of each participant's most-loved things in life - like a web browser favourites list of their preferred TV shows, sports teams and celebrities.

Dr Fried, director of the Epilepsy Surgery Program at UCLA, then reverse-engineered the process, giving each neuron control over a screen visible to the patient.

Participants were quickly able to learn to control the preferred neuron to make an associated image - such as a photo of the right celebrity - appear on the screen from a choice of two pictures.

The findings could ultimately allow thought to control clinical laboratory IT solutions, even if only for binary operations such as switching on and off.