Brain implant helps quadriplegic man move again

For most of us, movement is easy.  We think about an action, and our limbs instantly follow our brain’s command.  But for people like 24-year-old Ian Burkhart of Dublin, Ohio, something (often a spinal injury) has interrupted that line of communication.  That’s why Burkhart and others who have quadriplegia experience loss of motor functions: the connection between brain and limbs has been broken.

But researchers are now working on a way to bypass the need for that connection entirely, and Burkhart has been helping.  Two years ago a chip was implanted in Burkhart’s brain, and it is capable of reading the activity of several hundred neurons inside his motor cortex—the part of his brain that controls hand movement.  An external computer then interprets that activity, and in turn sends signals to a sleeve of 130 electrodes that Burkhart wore around his right arm, enabling different muscles in his arm to contract or be stimulated at his command.



It was not an instant or easy process.  The computer that interprets brain activity had to be taught to essentially interpret a kind of human thought, a complicated process that took many hours.  Burkhart had three sessions each week for 15 months of learning how to use the sleeve and how to think in a way that the computer could understand, sessions which he described as initially mentally exhausting, fatiguing, and like seven-hour exams.  To make his hand and arm move again, he noted that he had to break down each part of the motion and think about it in a more concentrated way, a process he says he took for granted before the accident that left him unable to move his arms and legs.

Still, even with all the work, Burkhart still enjoyed having some of his motor function back.  He’s been able to pour from a glass, move objects, and swipe a credit card.  A woman in 2012 was able to move a robotic arm using her thoughts, but this is the first example of so-called “limb reanimation” in a quadriplegic patient.  Burkhart believes it is more natural and intuitive, since he can see his own hand responding to his thoughts.

Doctors admit that it will be at least a decade before technology like this will be available outside of a lab.  There are several hurdles to overcome, including the need for a chip that can listen to more neurons, as well as a more portable computer to interpret the signals.  As for right now, funding for the project is set to run out later this year, forcing Burkhart to relinquish his newly gained abilities.  It will be difficult for him, he said, as he enjoyed it so much.  But he is hopeful that with enough people working on the project, he will someday be able to use it outside, which, he says, could really improve his quality of life.

You can learn more about Ian Burkhart and this limb reanimation technology from the original study in the journal Nature, as well as from The New York Times,  the Los Angeles Times, and the BBC.