A young quadriplegic in Ohio is the first patient to make use of a "bypass" technology giving him the ability to move to his paralyzed hand just by using his thoughts, neuroscientists say.
Ian Burkhart, 23, paralyzed 4 years ago in a diving accident, is the first person to make use of the technology dubbed Neurobridge, an electronic system that bypasses the injured spinal cord to reconnect a patient's brain straight to muscles, restoring voluntary control over a paralyzed limb.
The technology is the result of a collaboration between Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center and research and development organization Battelle.
Battelle, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, is a global nonprofit organization employing more than 22,000 people in 60 research centers around the world.
Batelle researchers have worked for almost 10 years to learn how to decode electrical impulses created by the brain's motor control areas and create a sensor chip for them.
In April, neurosurgeons implanted one such sensor chip in Burkhart's brain.
The chip can communicate directly with a sleeve on Burkhart's forearm, processing his thoughts to create signals that are sent to the sleeve to produce movements in the arm, the researchers explained.
It takes just a tenth of a second for Burkhart's thoughts to be translated into movement and action, they said.
"It's much like a heart bypass, but instead of bypassing blood, we're actually bypassing electrical signals," said Chad Bouton, research leader at Batelle Memorial Institute. "We're taking those signals from the brain, going around the injury, and actually going directly to the muscles."
The collaboration between Ohio State researchers and scientists at Battelle began two years ago when Bouton began working with university neuroscience researchers Ali Rezai and Jerry Mysiw.
"I've been doing rehabilitation for a lot of years, and this is a tremendous stride forward in what we can offer these people," said Mysiw, chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. "Now we're examining human-machine interfaces and interactions, and how that type of technology can help."
Burkhart, for his part, says he's optimistic about what technology can offer for his future.
"It's definitely great for me to be as young as I am when I was injured because the advancements in science and technology are growing rapidly and they're only going to continue to increase," he said.
He said he was pleased to have the opportunity to participate in the research effort.
"It's not too often you can say you're the first to do something," he said.
