This segment is part of the IEEE Spectrum series The New Medicine

Susan Hassler: Every time you move your arm or even think about doing it, your brain generates electrical signals. Scientists are now trying to decode those signals and use them to move artificial limbs. A technology like this could make a world of difference to amputees or those who are paralyzed. And it has been tested for the first time on someone with a spinal cord injury. Prachi Patel visited the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to find out more.

[ambient sound; wheelchair whirring; Tim Hemmes talking to girlfriend]

Prachi Patel: Tim Hemmes was 23 when he broke his spinal cord in a motorcycle accident. He was paralyzed from the neck down. That was eight years ago. Last fall, surgeons at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center placed a small sensor on the surface of his brain. Four weeks later, Hemmes could move a robotic arm with his thoughts.

[ambient sound; robotic arm moving]

Prachi Patel: A video shows him concentrating intensely. The metal hand moves with erratic bursts and finally touches a researchers palm.

[ambient sound; All right! There you go Yay! Nice!]

Tim Hemmes: To have Wei standing there and to reach out to him, that was what Ive been working for seven years. Whether it was robotic, whether it was metal and plasticmy mind, my thought process, put that there.

Prachi Patel: In 2008, the Pittsburgh team had shown that monkeys could feed themselves treats by controlling a robotic arm with their minds. Hemmes is the first human to have tried the technology. Michael Boninger, the lead physician on the research trial, shows me the sensor that was used to read Hemmess brain signals.

Michael Boninger: You can see theres a bunch of tiny, like 1-millimeter silver spots. Those are the electrodes. And its through this small pad thats the size of one of those designer postage stamps were able to record the electrical signals. The only thing were doing is recording the electrical signal that the brain normally produces when someone thinks.

Go here to see the original:
Brain-Computer Interface for Spinal Cord Injury

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