Researchers in an innovative partnership between The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Battelle, both in Columbus, OH, have developed an innovative technology called Neurobridge that allowed a quadriplegic man to move his arm for the first time in four years, controlled by his thoughts.

Fig. 1 – This photo captures the moment a paralyzed man moved his hand for the first time using his own thoughts. Neurobridge technology uses a specialized sleeve on the forearm to communicate with a chip implanted in the patient’s brain. (Credit: Battelle)
Ian Burkhart is the first patient to successfully use the technology, an electronic neural bypass for spinal cord injuries that reconnects the brain directly to muscles, allowing voluntary and functional control of a paralyzed limb. Neurobridge acts as a bridge between the patient’s brain and body. He is the first of a potential five participants in this clinical study. (See Figure 1)

“It’s much like a heart bypass, but instead of bypassing blood, we’re actually bypassing electrical signals,” said Chad Bouton, research leader at Battelle. “We’re taking those signals from the brain, going around the injury, and actually going directly to the muscles.”

Neurosurgeon Dr. Ali Rezai of Ohio State explained: “We implanted a microchip sensor in Ian’s brain that will essentially read his thoughts and send signals to a wearable high-tech sleeve placed on his forearm to control his muscle movements.”

The special software that interprets brain signals and one-of-a-kind sleeve, developed by Chad Bouton, and his team at Battelle, helps create a bypass for Ian’s spinal cord. “Once Ian thinks about moving his hand, his thoughts are processed and sent through wires connected to the sleeve and Ian’s muscles, which allows him to once again move his hand and fingers,” Bouton said.

How It Works

The technology combines algorithms that learn and decode the user’s brain activity and a high-definition muscle stimulation sleeve that translates neural impulses from the brain and transmits new signals to the paralyzed limb.

It took took 10 years to develop the Neurobridge algorithms, software, and stimulation sleeve, and then months of rehabilitating Burkhart’s arm to get it ready for the device, plus the surgery to implant the chip. Battelle scientists first recorded neural impulses from an electrode array implanted in a paralyzed person’s brain. They used that data to illustrate the device’s effect on the patient and prove the concept.

Two years ago, Bouton and his team began collaborating with Ohio State neuroscience researchers and clinicians Rezai and Dr. Jerry Mysiw to design the clinical trials and validate the feasibility of using the Neurobridge technology in patients.

During a three-hour surgery in April, Rezai implanted a tiny chip onto the motor cortex of Burkhart’s brain. The chip interprets brain signals and sends them to a computer, which recodes and sends them to the high-definition electrode stimulation sleeve that stimulates the proper muscles to execute his desired movements. Within a tenth of a second, Burkhart’s thoughts are translated into action. Rezai is hopeful that this technology may one day help patients affected by various brain and spinal cord injuries such as strokes and traumatic brain injury.

Battelle also developed a non-invasive neurostimulation technology in the form of a wearable sleeve that allows for precise activation of small muscle segments in the arm to enable individual finger movement, along with software that forms what they call a “virtual spinal cord” to allow for coordination of dynamic hand and wrist movements.

The Ohio State and Battelle teams worked together to figure out the correct sequence of electrodes to stimulate to allow Burkhart to move his fingers and hand functionally. For example, Burkhart uses different brain signals and muscles to rotate his hand, make a fist or pinch his fingers together to grasp an object, Mysiw said. As part of the study, Burkhart worked for months using the electrode sleeve to stimulate his forearm to rebuild his atrophied muscles so they would be more responsive to the electric stimulation.

To view a video of the technology in action, visit www.techbriefs.com/tv/neurobridge. For more information on Battelle, Columbus, OH, and Neurobridge, visit http://info.hotims.com/49748-190 .