FOXBOROUGH, Mass., July 12 (UPI) -- A new device can take thoughts from the brain of a person with paralysis and translate them into actions.
Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems calls its "neuromotor prosthesis" the BrainGate Neural Interface System and has reported on the first human clinical trials of the device in the July 13 issue of the journal Nature.
The authors, led by John Donoghue, explained that people with long-standing paralysis can learn to generate signals in the area of the brain responsible for voluntary movement and these signals can be detected, recorded, routed out of the brain to a computer, and converted into actions.
Three patients have used the BrainGate so far. Although malfunctions sent the device back to the drawing board after a few months, the results have been extremely encouraging.
One of the patients was 25 and paralyzed from the neck down after a spinal cord injury. After the 4 x 4 mm BrainGate sensor was implanted on the surface of his brain, he learned to open e-mail, draw, and play a simple video game on a computer; change the channel and volume of a television; and grasp and move objects using a prosthetic hand.
The second patient was 55 with a similar injury and also learned to control the cursor. The third subject, unable to speak from a brainstem stroke, reportedly has greater cursor control than the first two patients.
The system is being improved, and the team is currently looking at new applications, the company said.
