Multiple choice

The author’s use of the phrase 'indicating something else also' in the 2nd paragraph implies most likely which of the following?

Directions: The passage below is followed by a question. Answer the question on the basis of what is stated or implied in the passage.

In a major step toward helping paralytic victims walk again, Duke University researchers have announced that they had proved monkeys can use their brainpower to control the walking patterns of robots. The investigators implanted Idoya, a rhesus monkey, with electrodes which gathered signals from her brain's motor and sensory cortex cells as she ambled along on a specially built child-size treadmill. The electrodes recorded the cells' responses as the monkey walked on the treadmill at different speeds; simultaneously, sensors on Idoya's legs tracked their patterns of movement. The information was transmitted real time from their lab in Durham, to control the commands of a humanoid robot in Kyoto, Japan.

Through the electrodes in her brain, the researchers discovered that some neurons fire at different phases and frequencies, depending on their role in the process. During the experiment, the robot continued to move for several minutes after Idoya stopped strolling on her treadmill indicating something else also.

The team’s goal is to finally enable real-time direct interfaces between a brain and electronic and mechanical devices that could be used to restore sensory and motor functions lost through injury or disease. The team hopes that one day soon, they will also master sufficient syntax to talk back to the brain, which would enable them, for instance, to build a human prosthetic arm laden with sensors to send tactile feedback into the somatosensory cortex of its user.

The experiment in monkey-to-robotic motion is the latest in a long series of studying the primate brain's ability to stimulate robotic arms through neural signals. In 2000 Nicolelis and his colleagues described how they had reliably translated the raw electrical brain activity of an owl monkey named Belle into signals that successfully directed the actions of robotic arms based both at Duke and at an MIT lab 965 kilometers away in Cambridge. Belle's tiny hand moved a joystick left or right to correspond with a horizontal series of lights on a display panel in a Duke lab; both robot arms followed suit.

A few years later, the team listened in on brain signals generated by a rhesus monkey named Aurora using a joystick to play a video game and translated them into commands for a mechanical arm to duplicate the motions. Aurora was ultimately able to move a robotic arm sans the joystick, using only her thoughts, an experiment that the team believes addresses fundamental questions about how brain circuits operate.

  1. The robot kept on moving despite the apparent absence of any signals. This proves that it has a brain of its own.

  2. Despite the apparent stoppage of Idoya’s movement, the neurons firing in her brain kept on sending signals for certain movements to the robot, which made it move.

  3. The apparent stoppage of Idoya’s movement can be attributed to the fact the neurons stopped firing in her brain, while the robot kept receiving wrong signals.

  4. Even in the absence of physical movement by Idoya, the neurons in her brain were firing.

  5. None of these
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Option (1) is not a wise choice as it talks of the robot having a brain of its own. This is certainly not the goal of the researchers, which they want to prove. A robot does have a computer inside it. In fact, this is a given. Option (3) is again wrong because it is impossible for the robot to receive a signal if it has not been sent by the monkey’s brain. Option (4) lies beyond the logical domain of the passage and is not supported by it. Pay careful attention to the italicised words, which help us arrive at the correct answer, option (2).

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