A brain implant has restored movement and a sense of touch in the hand of a man with a severe spinal cord injury. Patrick Ganzer at Battelle Memorial Institute in the US and his colleagues have developed a brain-computer interface (BCI) that has allowed 28-year-old Ian Burkhart to grasp and feel objects again. Burkhart has a severe upper spinal cord injury and has complete paralysis in his hands and legs, but can move his elbows and shoulders. He had a brain implant inserted in 2014 as part of research aiming to restore movement in his right arm. The BCI uses the implant to record brain activity that is sent to a processor that decodes these signals into movements, which in turn feed in to bands around the forearm which electrically activate his hand muscles.

Tech Intelligence Bulletin (HG Insights) – Brown University is exploring concepts with Intel technology for an Intelligent Spine Interface project that aims to use artificial intelligence (AI) technology to restore movement and bladder control for patients paralyzed by severe spinal cord injuries. During the two-year program, researchers will record motor and sensory signals from the spinal cord and use artificial neural networks to learn how to stimulate the post-injury site to communicate motor commands. Surgeons at Rhode Island Hospital near Brown University will implant electrode arrays on both ends of a patient's injury site, creating an intelligent bypass to eventually allow the severed nerves to communicate in real time. Researchers are considering Intel AI open source software such as nGraph and Intel AI accelerator hardware to meet the real-time requirements of this application. "As a Ph.D. student at Brown, I investigated how to interface the brain with machines as an application. Now at Intel, we're combining our AI expertise with Brown University's cutting-edge medical research to help solve a critical medical problem: how to reconnect the brain and spine after a major spinal injury," said Naveen Rao, Intel corporate vice president and general manager of the AI Products Group.

Air Force veteran (1968-1975) Angel Camareno is fitted with a MyoPro device. Angel suffered a brachial plexus injury 40 years ago which led to reduced motion in his arm. Myomo, a spinout from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has created a robotic arm brace for people with limb paralysis from neurological disorders such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Multiple Sclerosis (MS) or stroke to help them regain movement with their hands and arms. The robotic arm brace, MyoPro, senses the patient's electromyography (EMG) signals through non-invasive sensors and restores function to their paralyzed arms. Patients who use the device are able to do things they were unable to do or found difficult to do before such as feeding themselves, doing laundry, carrying objects or even returning to work.

Five years ago, Ian Burkhart was left paralysed from the chest down after a diving accident. Today, he can pick up a coffee cup, swipe a credit card and even play air guitar - all by using the power of thought. The 24-year-old is the first person to be implanted with a brain chip that reads his mind, decodes the signals from his nerves and then uses the information to make muscles move. The milestone, reported in the journal Nature, spells hope for millions of paralysed people including victims of strokes. The doctors and engineers behind the breakthrough said: 'We think the sky is the limit.'