A machine that can allow people to control a computer using just their thoughts could open up the world for locked-in syndrome sufferers, U.S. scientists claim.

Sensors embedded in the brain have allowed subjects in a study to move a cursor around the screen and fade and brighten images using just their brain, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday.

Locked-in syndrome is a condition in which a patient is aware and awake but cannot move or communicate verbally due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body except for the eyes. In total locked-in syndrome, the eyes are paralyzed as well.

Twelve epilepsy patients who, because of their illness, had sensors embedded into their brains to monitor nerve activity were recruited for a study by researchers at the University of California and California Institute of Technology.

The volunteers learned to "exert conscious control" on individual nerve endings or neurons within the brain so that they could be switched on and off using just their thoughts,

The sensors within their brains, reacting to the state of the neurons, could generate commands for a computer screen.

The study showed "individuals can rapidly, consciously, and voluntarily control neurons deep inside their head," Professor Christof Koch of the California Institute of Technology said.

Results of the study were published in the journal Nature.