Advances in BCI: A Neural Bypass Technology to Reconnect the Brain to the Body

Abstract

Millions of people worldwide suffer from diseases that lead to paralysis through disruption of signal pathways between the brain and the muscles. It has previously been shown that intracortically-recorded signals can be decoded to extract information related to movement, allowing non-human primates and paralyzed humans to control computers, wheelchairs and robotic arms through imagined movements. In non-human primates, these types of signals have also been used to drive activation of chemically paralyzed arm muscles. In an entirely novel application of brain computer interface (BCI) technology, we show that intracortically-recorded signals can be linked in real-time to muscle activation to restore functional wrist and finger movement in a paralyzed human. Our technology is designed to restore lost function and could be used to form an electronic ‘neural bypass’ to circumvent disconnected pathways in the nervous system.