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Brain-computer link allows paralyzed
patient to manipulate devices by thought
First results of pilot trial conducted
at MGH, Spaulding, other institutions around the U.S.
BOSTON - July 12, 2006 - A patient with a spinal cord injury
was able to produce brain signals associated with intending to move
his paralyzed limbs, signals picked up by an implanted sensor and
translated into electronic impulses that allowed him to control
a computer cursor and manipulate mechanical devices. A report appearing
in the July 13 issue of Nature includes the first published
findings from an ongoing clinical trial of the BrainGate Neural
Interface System, a brain-computer interface device in the early
stages of clinical testing at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH),
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and other institutions across
the country.
"The broad question we are addressing is whether it's possible
for someone with paralysis to use the activity of the motor cortex
[the part of the brain responsible for motion] to control an external
device," says Leigh Hochberg, MD, PhD, a neurologist at MGH,
Spaulding and Brigham and Women's Hospital and lead author of the
Nature paper. "There has been a question of how the
function of the cortex might change after it was disconnected from
the rest of the body by damage to the spinal cord. We're finding
that, even years after spinal cord injury, the same signals that
originally controlled a limb are available and can be utilized."
Manufactured by Cyberkinetics
Neurotechnology Systems, Inc., of Foxborough, Mass., the BrainGate
System consists of an internal sensor to detect brain cell activity
and external processors that convert brain impulses into computerized
signals. Two clinical trials are currently underway to evaluate
the system's safety and feasibility for detecting and translating
brain activity from patients with paralysis resulting from spinal
cord injury, brain stem stroke or muscular dystrophy and patients
with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease).
John Donoghue, PhD, a neuroscience professor and director of the
Brain Science Program at Brown
University and the senior author of the Nature paper, is a co-founder
of Cyberkinetics.
The Nature report describes the first participant in these
trials, a 25-year-old man who had sustained a spinal cord injury
leading to paralysis in all four limbs three years prior to the
study. Over a period of nine months, he took part in 57 sessions
during which the implanted BrainGate sensor recorded activity in
his motor cortex while he imagined moving his paralyzed limbs and
then used that imagined motion for several computer-based tasks.
Among his accomplishments - completed with little or no learning
time - was moving a computer cursor to open simulated e-mail, draw
circular shapes and play simple video games. He also was able to
open and close a prosthetic hand and use a robotic limb to grasp
and move objects.
"This system is giving us, for the first time, the ability
to look at and listen to firing patterns of ensembles of individual
neurons in the human brain for extended periods of time. We hope
the knowledge gained from this work will allow the development of
systems that provide improved communication and environmental control
for people with paralysis and someday, when combined with neuromuscular
stimulators, restore control over their limbs," says Hochberg,
an instructor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School and an investigator
in neuroscience at Brown. He and his co-authors also note that the
system requires significant improvement in reliability and control
and that further research is needed before it will be useful outside
a research setting.
Co-authors of the Nature paper, along with Hochberg and Donoghue,
are Mijail Serruya, MD, PhD, of Brown; Gerhard Friehs, MD, of Brown
and Rhode Island Hospital; Jon Mukand, MD, PhD, Sargent Rehabilitation
Center, Warwick, R.I.; Maryam Saleh, Abraham Caplan, and Almut Branner,
PhD of Cyberkinetics; David Chen, MD, Rehabilitation Institute of
Chicago; and Richard Penn, MD, University of Chicago. The clinical
trials are being supported by Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems,
Inc.
Massachusetts General Hospital, established in 1811, is the original
and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH
conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United
States, with an annual research budget of nearly $500 million and
major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer,
computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human
genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative
medicine, transplantation biology and photomedicine. MGH and Brigham
and Women's Hospital are founding members of Partners HealthCare
HealthCare System, a Boston-based integrated health care delivery
system.
Media Contact: Sue
McGreevey, MGH Public Affairs
Additional Media Contacts: Wendy
Lawton, Brown University
Elizabeth Razee,
Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems
Physician Referral Service: 1-800-388-4644
Information about Clinical Trials
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