Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of
Medicine and UPMC describe in PLoS ONE how an electrode array sitting on top of
the brain enabled a 30-year-old paralyzed man to control the movement of a
character on a computer screen in three dimensions with just his thoughts. It
also enabled him to move a robot arm to touch a friend’s hand for the first
time in the seven years since he was injured in a motorcycle accident.
With brain-computer interface (BCI) technology, the thoughts
of Tim Hemmes, who sustained a spinal cord injury that left him unable to move
his body below the shoulders, were interpreted by computer algorithms and
translated into intended movement of a computer cursor and, later, a robot arm,
explained lead investigator Wei Wang, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Pitt School of Medicine.