Science! Technology! In a worldwide medical first, researchers have successfully implanted a computer-mind interface into the motor cortex of a 58-year-old, quadriplegic woman which allowed her to control a robotic limb using only the power of her mind. The future is now.

15 years ago Cathy Hutchinson had a stroke which left her virtually paralysed from the neck down. On Wednesday she was able to serve herself for the first time in as many years. She was one of two people, the other being a 66-year old man who also suffered a stroke years ago, who received tiny brain implants which allowed them to control prostheses using only the power of their minds.

Before this study, research had shown how a neural interface system could be used to move and click a cursor on a computer and able-bodied monkeys had used it to control a robotic arm, but it was unknown whether it would have the same success in people “with profound upper extremity paralysis or limb loss”. It did.

Here we demonstrate the ability of two people with long-standing tetraplegia to use neural interface system-based control of a robotic arm to perform three-dimensional reach and grasp movements. Participants controlled the arm and hand over a broad space without explicit training, using signals decoded from a small, local population of motor cortex (MI) neurons recorded from a 96-channel microelectrode array. One of the study participants, implanted with the sensor 5 years earlier, also used a robotic arm to drink coffee from a bottle. Although robotic reach and grasp actions were not as fast or accurate as those of an able-bodied person, our results demonstrate the feasibility for people with tetraplegia, years after injury to the central nervous system, to recreate useful multidimensional control of complex devices directly from a small sample of neural signals.

In layman’s terms, a paralysed woman used her mind to control a robotic arm to drink some coffee, which is not nearly as insignificant as it sounds. It literally changes the face of medicine and opens up a host of new possibilities for patients suffering from paralysis or loss of limbs. Imagine being able to regain control of your life after being paralysed, to no longer be dependent on caregivers.

The device is still far from ready for application in general population, but the fact that it exists and works so well is very encouraging and now it’s only a matter of time before humans and technology are completely, harmoniously intertwined.

[Source: NYT, Nature]