BCI Restores a Paralyzed Man’s Sense of Touch

A decade ago, while on a North Carolina vacation, Ian Burkhart broke his neck as a result of a driving accident. Following this was a life-changing diagnosis: a full spinal cord injury in the cervical spine.

Medical experts explained that an injury of the said nature frequently leads to paraplegia. With this, doctors noted that Burkhart might have some movement and sensation in his upper arm and shoulders regained. However, the chance of having his hands move again, experts explained, were slim.

It was in 2016 when Burkhart made headlines after an online news site declared him as the first person to be 'reanimated'.

The Battelle Memorial Institute and the Wexner Medical Center researchers were able to utilize a brain-computer interface or BCI to restore the ability of Burkhart to move his hand partly.

Essentially, a BCI implantation in the motor cortex of Burkhart scans for motor intentions connected to hand movements. It sends this information to a computer, which delivers a signal to an electrical stimulation sleeve on his arm, evoking muscular contractions that operate the hand.

The setup efficiently bypasses the severed spinal cord of Burkhart, restoring the link between his brain and the muscles that control his hand.

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Sense of Touch Restored

In a recently-published article, the group of researchers at Battelle and Wexner said they now have partially restored the sense of touch of 28-year-old Burkhart. Such a breakthrough relied on critical theoretical vision, as well as a bit of resourceful problem-solving. 

Medical experts claimed, restoring the ability of Burkhart to control his hand was a breakthrough in the history of neuroscience.

However, it was just a step towards the restoration of anything, such as complete functionality. The range of motions of Burkhart stays limited, not to mention, inaccurate. 

Part of the problem was that, even though the original iteration partly had Burkhart's motor ability restored, it was not able to restore his somatosensory system or the body-to-brain signal.

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Reliance on Somatosensory Feedback

Reports indicated that Burkhart was learning to reach and grasp. However, he was unable to touch or feel. And, minus the hand-to-brain sensory feedback, his motor ability was quite challenging to manage and control.

We depend on somatosensory feedback for the regulation of the fine-tuned motor activity, explained experts.

When an individual grabs an object, for instance, the brain is monitoring somatosensory feedback from the body to regulate and correct the motor signal that's coming out. 

If there is no sensory feedback, it is quite challenging to optimize the intensity of the grip, leading to maybe crushing an egg because of a mere gentle hold of it, or dropping dumbbells as a result of an uncontrolled grip.

Even with partly restored motor ability in Burkhart's hand, he was struggling to control the intensity of his grip. 

More so, the sensory feedback's absence left him feeling estranged from his own hand, as if he were moving another person's body instead of his own. 

A separate report specified that investigators found that even though Burkhart had nearly no sensation in his hand when they stirred his skin, a neural signal was transmitted. But it was so small that his brain was unable to notice it.

An expert explained that even with individuals, like Burkhart, who already have a clinically complete injury of the spinal cord, there are nearly always a few threads of nerve fibers that would stay intact.

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