Brainware lets paralysed man tuck into his tatties

30 March 2017 - 09:20 By Reuters
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MIND YOUR TABLE MANNERS: Bill Kochevara, who was paralysed from the shoulders down in an accident eight years ago, can use his arms and hands again thanks to a computer interface that connects the severed link between his brain and his muscles
MIND YOUR TABLE MANNERS: Bill Kochevara, who was paralysed from the shoulders down in an accident eight years ago, can use his arms and hands again thanks to a computer interface that connects the severed link between his brain and his muscles
Image: AFP/THE LANCET

A paralysed man in the US fed himself mashed potatoes for the first time in eight years, aided by a computer-brain interface that reads his thoughts and sends signals to move muscles in his arm, researchers said this week.

The research, published in the Lancet, is the latest from BrainGate, a consortium of researchers testing brain-computer interface technology designed to give paralysed people more mobility.

The team at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Functional Electrical Stimulation Centre used the interface and an electrical stimulation system that allowed Bill Kochevar, 56, to control his own arm.

To achieve this, the team implanted two sensors, each about the size of a baby aspirin, loaded with 96 electrodes designed to pick up nerve activity in the movement centres of the brain.

The sensors record brain signals created when Kochevar imagines moving his arm, and relay them to a computer. The computer sends the signals to the electrical stimulation system, which directs impulses through about 30 wires implanted in muscles in Kochevar's arm and hand to produce specific movements.

Kochevar, who was paralysed below his shoulders in a cycling accident eight years ago, first learned to use the system to move a virtual reality arm on a computer screen.

He accomplished that on the first day he tried it, said Case Western's Robert Kirsch, the study's senior author.

For the movement phase of the trial, Kochevar had to go through 45 weeks of rehabilitation to restore muscle tone that had atrophied over years of inactivity.

He can now move each joint in his right arm individually just by thinking about it.

Kochevar said the chance to do things for himself was "better than I thought it would be".

The system is experimental , but the study shows such a device is feasible, Kirsch said.

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