![]() ![]() We have to overcome this abnormal muscle tone, all while learning to use the implants to control the patient’s arm via the brace.”ĭr. Patients with stroke often develop abnormal movements in order to compensate for what’s lost. “Although that might seem like an easier task than a fully paralyzed patient, it isn’t. “This study will be the first patient implanted with electrodes who can walk and still live semi-independently,” says Dr. ![]() This study lays the groundwork for that future.” “This trial will pave the way for a future in which a patient with permanent disability from stroke can get an implant, train with rehab and artificial intelligence experts to use it, and go home with finer control of a mechanized brace. Rosenwasser is also the chair of the department of Neurological Surgery and president of the Vickie and Jack Farber Institute for Neuroscience at Jefferson Health. “Fully implantable BCI implants are currently being developed by a number of companies,” says neurosurgeon Robert Rosenwasser, MD, MBA who led the implantation surgery for the patient, together with surgeons Ashwini Sharan, MD and Chengyuan Wu, MD. Fully implanted wireless intracortical electrodes have not yet been approved for human use. Serruya’s, must be removed because the wires that plug into the computer extend through the patient’s skin. Brain electrodes, approved by the FDA only in the setting of investigational trials, implanted in all patients, including Dr. Patients with virtually no ability to control their movement were able – with training – to convert their thoughts into signals that controlled a number of electrical device.īut those abilities were only available to the patients as long as the brain implants were in place. Their neuronal signal – their intention to move – was then decoded and interpreted by artificial intelligence algorithms into moving a cursor on a screen, a robotic arm or muscle stimulators. In those patients, electrodes that recorded brain signals were implanted in the brain tissue and connected by wires extending through the skull to a computer. In the past, other clinical trials of brain-computer interface, or BCI, focused on patients with the much more rare and devastating form of brainstem stroke or spinal cord injury that causes paralysis from the neck down, or even locked-in syndrome that renders patients incapable of movement. “This study serves as a proof of concept, a necessary bridge to future studies that would use fully implanted wireless electrodes to improve movement after stroke. “This is the first person ever with this very common type of stroke to be implanted with brain electrodes that send neuronal signals to an arm brace that then controls movement,” says principal investigator of the study Mijail Serruya, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of neurology at Thomas Jefferson University, who was part of the team that implanted the first human with a brain electrode 15 years ago.
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