BCIwiki (bciwiki.com) — A person with complete tetraplegia regained the ability to self-feed and grasp fragile objects using a two-way neuroprosthesis, and gains in elbow flexion strength and wrist sensation persisted after stimulation stopped, according to a Nature Medicine paper reported by ApplySci.
The system links an intracortical brain-computer interface (BCI) with patterned stimulation of the spinal cord and cortex. It uses recurrent artificial neural networks and reinforcement learning for fine grasp control, alongside patterned spinal cord stimulation and activity-informed intracortical microstimulation.
A Nature Neuroscience research highlight describes the design. Movement intentions decoded from motor cortex drive muscle stimulation. Force sensors on the hand feed touch back to the brain through microstimulation of the somatosensory cortex. A therapeutic arm pairs spinal stimulation with sensory input to promote plasticity.
Most paralysis technology works in one direction, reading the brain to move a limb, ApplySci noted. The persistence of gains without stimulation suggests the system may be retraining circuits rather than only substituting for them, the outlet said.