Five years ago, Ian Burkhart dove into a shallow wave at the beach. He collided with the bottom of the ocean, breaking his neck and severely damaging his spinal cord. The injury made him a quadriplegic.
It cost him the use of his legs and forearms, and because of the nerve connections, he also lost the use of his hands.
In April 2016, however, Nature Publishing Group uploaded a video to YouTube showing Burkhart playing the video game Guitar Hero with the same hands and fingers he lost use of when he was 19 years old.
Burkhart was not playing the game using the ruined nerves in his forearms – he was doing it with his thoughts.
Two years ago, a team of researchers planted a microchip in Burkhart’s brain. The researchers have been studying his brain patterns since that day, and have created a system that allows the brain to bypass damaged areas of the body in order to perform actions.
“This is the first time a completely paralyzed person has regained movement just by using their own thoughts,” said Chad Bouton, lead author of the study and the division leader of neurotechnology and analytics at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in New York.
Implants and Electrodes
Burkhart had a device called a neural array implanted in his brain.
“It takes data directly from the brain, in this case Ian’s brain, by an array that’s implanted in his brain and it decodes that and takes those signals and uses them to stimulate Ian’s own forearm to cause his muscles to contract and move in the way that he wants them to,” said Nick Annetta, an author of the study and scientist at the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio. “It creates what we call a neural bypass from the brain.”
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Bouton called the neural array a “window into Ian’s neural activity.” It signals Burkhart’s brain activity to a computer – which was trained over several years to associate Ian’s thoughts with a desired action or outcome, like making a fist or relaxing his hand. The computer translates that brain activity into electrical pulses, which feed into a sleeve of 130 electrodes on Burkhart’s forearm. The electrodes cause certain muscles to contract, which allows Burkhart to use his hands.
The technology is cumbersome right now, but Dr. Ali Rezai, senior author of the study, is confident that this technology will continue to evolve. “Your cellphone…will be communicating with your sleeve,” he said. “Patients like Ian can be in charge of their own lives and be independent.”
Spinal Cord Injuries
Typically, signals from the brain use the spinal cord as a type of interstate to the rest of the body. Signals travel down the spine and through nerves that are connected to the muscles in the body. But when a person damages their spine, it creates roadblocks. The brain activity is still occurring, but it’s not being transmitted through the damaged section of the spinal cord.
This implant bypasses the damage and connects the brain directly to the muscles it’s trying to control. Doctors are ambitious that one day this type of technology will help more than those who have injured their spines.
People lose movement due to strokes, brain injuries, and other traumatic circumstances, and this brain bypass provides hope that, eventually, these sufferers can regain some semblance of control over their bodies.
