(CBS News) There’s been an astounding development in a story we first brought you on ’60 Minutes.” Researchers are reporting that a woman who is completely paralyzed has used a robotic arm controlled with nothing but her thoughts.

It’s a triumph of neurobiology and computer science you have to see to believe as CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley found out when we first met the woman, Cathy Hutchinson, in 2008.

It had been 11 years since a stroke left Cathy Hutchinson paralyzed from the neck down, unable to speak, but completely aware. A sensor with 100 electrodes was surgically placed on her brain to pick up the electrical signals brains create when we think about movement. The sensor was wired to a computer through a connection bolted to her skull.

John Donoghue, at Brown University, developed the system after decoding some of the brain’s electrical language.

“If you look at this square, each one of these little black boxes is the electrical signal coming from one electrode in the brain,” Donoghue said, demonstrating the technology.

And how well do we understand this language?

“We know that there’s a general pattern of, for example, left-right, up-down, even fast or slow,” he said.

Four years ago, Dr. Leigh Hochberg of Massachusetts General Hospital, explained as Hutchinson moved the computer cursor with her thoughts.

Read the complete article at

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57435652/paralyzed-woman-uses-mind-control-technology-to-operate-robotic-arm/