Neural bypass restores quadriplegic hand movement
Neural bypass restores quadriplegic hand movement
Jun, 26 2014
For the first time ever, a paralyzed man can move his
fingers and hand with his own thoughts.
Ian Burkhart, a 23-year-old quadriplegic from Dublin,
Ohio, is the first patient to use Neurobridge, an electronic neural bypass for
spinal cord injuries that reconnects the brain directly to muscles, allowing
voluntary and functional control of a paralyzed limb.
Burkhart is the first of a potential five participants in
a clinical study made possible through an innovative partnership between The
Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Battelle, a the world's largest
non-profit R&D organisation.
'It's much like a heart bypass, but instead of bypassing
blood, we're actually bypassing electrical signals,' said Chad Bouton, research
leader at Battelle. 'We're taking those signals from the brain, going around
the injury, and actually going directly to the muscles.'
A man in Ohio has become the first patient ever to move
his paralyzed hand by using his thoughts
The Neurobridge technology combines algorithms that learn
and decode the user's brain activity and a high-definition muscle stimulation
sleeve that translates neural impulses from the brain and transmits new signals
to the paralyzed limb. In this case, Ian's brain signals bypass his injured
spinal cord and move his hand, hence the name Neurobridge.
Working on the project for nearly a decade to develop the
algorithms, software and stimulation sleeve, Battelle scientists first recorded
neural impulses from an electrode array implanted in a paralyzed person's
brain. They used that data to illustrate the device's effect on the patient and
prove the concept.
Two years ago, Bouton and his team began collaborating
with Ohio State neuroscience researchers and clinicians Dr. Ali Rezai and Dr.
Jerry Mysiwto design the clinical trials and validate the feasibility of using
the Neurobridge technology in patients.
During a three-hour surgery on April 22, Rezai implanted
a small chip onto the motor cortex of Burkhart's brain. The chip interprets
brain signals and sends them to a computer, which recodes and sends them to the
high-definition electrode stimulation sleeve that stimulates the proper muscles
to execute his desired movements. Within a tenth of a second, Burkhart's
thoughts are translated into action.
'The surgery required the precise implantation of the
micro-chip sensor in the area of Ian's brain that controls his arm and hand
movements,' Rezai said in a statement.
He said this technology may one day help patients
affected by various brain and spinal cord injuries such as strokes and
traumatic brain injury.
Battelle also developed a non-invasive neurostimulation
technology in the form of a wearable sleeve that allows for precise activation
of small muscle segments in the arm to enable individual finger movement, along
with software that forms a 'virtual spinal cord' to allow for coordination of
dynamic hand and wrist movements.
The Ohio State and Battelle teams worked together to
ascertain the correct sequence of electrodes to stimulate to allow Burkhart to
move his fingers and hand functionally. For example, Burkhart uses different
brain signals and muscles to rotate his hand, make a fist or pinch his fingers
together to grasp an object, Mysiw said.
As part of the study, Burkhart worked for months using
the electrode sleeve to stimulate his forearm to rebuild his atrophied muscles
so they would be more responsive to the electric stimulation.
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