Paris – A quadriplegic manages to use his hand with a … – The Express

“ This is the first time a person completely paralyzed can repeat a movement using just his own thoughts ,” said at a press conference Chad Feinstein Institute for Button medical research in the United States, co-author of the study.

Chad button and a team of US scientists are behind a system called NeuroLife that is able to restore communication between the brain and muscles bypassing the spinal cord.

Ian Burkhart, an American of 24 years, is a quadriplegic for six years after a swimming accident that damaged her spinal cord.

“ The doctors told me that the best thing I could do would be to move my shoulders, but nothing more for the rest of my life ,” said Ian Burkhart reporters at the same press conference on Tuesday, the eve of the announcement.

In April 2014, doctors transplanted it a computer chip (smaller than a pea) in the motor cortex of the brain.

This chip transmits the thoughts of the patient to a computer that decodes and sends commands from the brain to a series of bracelets that electrically stimulate the muscles of the arm.

Scientists have been working for more than 25 years on the translation of thought into action through software: they showed that they could, without even beat an eyelash, write on a screen, or move an articulated arm-shaped robot for his coffee as was done in 2012 a woman who became a quadriplegic after a stroke (CVA).

In 2014, they demonstrated that a monkey could succeed by thinking transmitted by electrodes, to move the arm of another primate temporarily paralyzed with anesthetic.

– Fifteen months of rehabilitation –

“ We have tried to decipher the signals in the brain that are specifically associated with hand movements ” explains Chad button. “ The areas of the brain responsible for movement are intact but signals coming to an injured spinal cord. They are completely blocked and can not go to the muscles .”

In June 2014, two months after the implantation of the chip, Ian Burkhart was already able to open and close his hand just by thinking movement even if his muscles were weakened for lack of served a long time.

After 15 months of rehabilitation at the rate of three weekly sessions, the patient can now grab a bottle and pour its contents into a jar. It can hold a phone to his ear, stirring his coffee, pick up a spoon on the floor. He now plays guitar via a video game.

“ This really opens many new doors to more complex movements ,” said Chad button. “ What we try to do is help people regain control over their body .”

The researchers also hope to be able to switch to a son without system so that the patient is no longer cluttered with cables that, for now, link bracelets from his arm to the computer and chip his brain.

“ For me, being in a wheelchair and unable to walk is not the worst ,” said Ian Burkhart. “ The worst is the loss of independence that I need other people .” An autonomy that partially paralyzed could find for everyday gestures.

“ For now we are at clinical stage (…) but it is a system that can be used outside the hospital, at home, in even outside and can really improve my quality of life “enthused the young man.