Free Republic

When they inactivated one specific region, the monkeys stopped making risky choices. No other areas had a similar effect, even areas that have been shown to play a role in monkey decision-making. The region researchers identified is part of the Brodmann area in the monkey frontal lobe, which has dozens of smaller parts that are associated with all sorts of brain activities including speech, hearing, and movement. Specifically, it was Brodmann area 6, which is involved in planning complex and coordinated movement. In people, the frontal lobe is involved in personality, planning, organizing, and goal-oriented behavior.

Tech mogul Elon Musk unveiled his latest foray into science fiction Friday night: a brain chip implant to allow people who are paralyzed to operate technology, such as smartphones or robotic limbs, with their thoughts. "I think it's going to blow your minds," Musk said. "It's like a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires." But the coin-sized chips, developed by Musk's secretive startup Neuralink, are a ways off from being useful to humans. Friday's livestreamed YouTube demonstration was on a pig named Gertrude, who Musk said had a brain chip implanted two months earlier.

Recent successful tests of neural prosthetics bring the devices closer to widespread use. Paralyzed patients dream of the day when they can once again move their limbs. That dream is making its way to becoming a reality, thanks to a neural implant created by John Donoghue and colleagues at Brown University and Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems. In 2004, Matthew Nagle, who is paralyzed due to a spinal-cord injury, became the first person to test the device, which translated his brain activity into action (see "Implanting Hope," March 2005, and "Brain Chips Give Paralyzed Patients New Powers"). Nagle's experience with the prosthetic...