Quadriplegic Man Regains Arm and Hand Movements Thanks to Brain Computer I
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Researchers at Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) Center at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center (UH) have been working on research with BrainGate2, an ongoing trial conducted by academic and VA institutions assessing the safety and feasibility of brain implant stimulation on people with paralysis.
Jonathan Miller, director of the Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery Center at UH and assistant professor of neurosurgery at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, led the team of surgeons who implanted two 96-channel electrode arrays- each about the size of a baby aspirin- in Kochevar’s motor cortex on the surface of the brain. The arrays record brain signals generated in the visualization of movement in the arm and hand. The team then inserted the FES stimulation system to animate muscles in the upper and lower arm. The brain-computer interface extracts information from the brain signals about intended movements then passes the information to command the electrical stimulation system in the arm.
