Neural bypass device provides quadriplegic with hand movement

The device, called NeuroLife, was created by the Battelle Memorial Institute, an Ohio-based non-profit applied science and technology development company, and physicians and neuroscientists from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Centre.

A pea-sized microchip was implanted into the motor cortex of 24-year-old Ian Burkhart’s brain, interpreting the electronic signals associated with movement. The chip connects with wires to a specially designed sleeve on Burkhart’s arm that stimulates his muscles and gives him control over his paralysed limb.

"During the last decade, we've learned how to decipher brain signals in patients who are completely paralysed and now, for the first time, those thoughts are being turned into movement," said former Battelle researcher Chad Bouton, co-author of the study published this week in Nature.

"Our findings show that signals recorded from within the brain can be re-routed around an injury to the spinal cord, allowing restoration of functional movement and even movement of individual fingers."