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Scientists have successfully reversed paralysis, using a brain implant to restore a man’s hand movement and sense of touch.
The breakthrough came after years of testing on Ian Burkhart, who cut his spinal cord in a diving accident in 2010, leaving him with paralysis in his hands and legs.
In 2014, researchers at Battelle, a nonprofit research organization in Ohio, attempted to restore movement to your hand by surgically implanting a brain-computer interface (BCI) inside your skull.
The BCI collects electrical signals used to move the body and sends them over a cable from its head to a PC. Then a program decodes the meaning of the signals and transmits the data to the electrodes wrapped around your forearm.
[Read: AI system translates brain activity into text]
This allowed Burkhart to play a modified version of Guitar Hero, by pressing the buttons on the neck of the guitar. But he still couldn’t control the firmness of his grip, or know if he was holding an object without looking at it.
Scientists sought to change this by restoring Burkhart’s sense of touch.
The brain implant separates touch from movement.
The researchers divided the signals from the BCI into those that were used for movement, that were sent to his forearm, and those that were used for touch, that went to a cuff on his biceps.
The signals then turned into vibrations, which tell Burkhart when he’s touching an object and how hard he’s holding it. The effect is comparable to the vibration feedback used in video game controllers.
As a result, Buckhart can now sense the objects he touches, dramatically improving his ability to control his hand.
“It has been surprising to see the potential for sensory information to come from a device that was originally created to allow me to control my hand in only one direction,” said Burkhart.
More work is needed to make the system small and sturdy enough for everyday use. But the trial has already shown that paralysis does not have to be permanent.
Published April 27, 2020 – 15:06 UTC
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