AI-powered Brain Implants Restore Touch and Movement to Paralysed Man
upstart writes:
AI-powered brain implants restore touch and movement to paralysed man:
In a world first, a quadriplegic man in the United States has regained touch and movement after surgeons successfully implanted microchips into his brain.
AI is then used to read, interpret and translate his thoughts into action.
Keith Thomas, 45, broke his neck in an accident and became paralysed from his chest down.
[...] A team of medical professionals first spent months mapping Thomas' brain using MRIs to help pinpoint the areas responsible for both arm movement and the sensation of touch in his hand.
He then underwent a 15-hour open-brain surgery.
[...] Dr Ashesh Mehta, the surgeon who performed Thomas' brain surgery said the wiring in Thomas' brain was "broken".
[...] "What we did was a bypass, so we bypassed the block. So, we're basically using a computer to read Keith's thoughts and then translate that into a machine that then stimulates his hand so that he can move it," explained Mehta.
The procedure - dubbed as a "double neural bypass" - goes the other direction as well. He can now "feel" something through tiny electrodes instead of neurons responsible for feeling his fingertips.
The tiny sensors at his fingertips and palm send touch and pressure information back to the sensory area of his brain implant to restore sensation through a computer instead of through the normal pathway through the spinal cord.
"It's almost like fooling the nervous system to make it work," said Mehta.
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