Pilot study of mind-to-movement device shows early promise

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Pilot study of mind-to-movement device shows early promise

10-Oct-2004 News-Medical.Net

In March 2002, Brown University researchers published an astounding

piece of science. Three rhesus monkeys, they reported, could control a

computer cursor without their hands. They used their minds instead.

This research was translated into a device currently being tested in a

25-year-old Massachusetts man who cannot use his arms or legs. The

technology is a success, according to preliminary results unveiled today

at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and

Rehabilitation in Phoenix.

Using the system, called BrainGate, the patient can read e-mail, play

video games, turn lights on or off and change channels or adjust the

volume of a television set. In early test sessions, the patient was able

to control the TV and carry on a conversation and move his head at the

same time.

“I think the results are spectacular, almost unbelievable,” said surgeon

Gerhard Friehs, an associate professor of clinical neurosciences at

Brown Medical School and the director of functional neurosurgery at

Rhode Island Hospital, who implanted the first BrainGate device in June.

“Here we have a research participant who is capable of controlling his

environment by thought alone – something we have only found in science

fiction so far,” Friehs said. “I hope that the trial will continue as

successfully as it has started and that all other candidates will have

as great an experience as our first candidate did.”

Donoghue, the Henry Merritt Wriston Professor and chair of the

Department of Neuroscience, led the original research project and went

on to co-found Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems Inc., the

Foxborough, Mass., company that created the implantable brain device and

is overseeing the clinical trial. Donoghue continues as chief scientific

officer at Cyberkinetics.

Donoghue hopes one day that BrainGate can help paralyzed people move by

controlling their own electric wheelchairs, communicate by using e-mail

and Internet-based phone systems, and be independent by controlling

items such as televisions and thermostats.

“Our ultimate goal is to develop the BrainGate System so that it can be

linked to many useful devices,” Donoghue said. “This includes medical

devices such as muscle stimulators, to give the physically disabled a

significant improvement in their ability to interact with the world.”

The original device tested in Donoghue’s lab consisted of a tiny array

of electrodes that, when attached to a monkey’s brain, recorded,

interpreted and reconstructed activity in the motor cortex, the area of

the brain that controls hand movement. The electrodes were connected to

a computer by thin cables. At first, the animals used their hands to

play a simple pinball computer game. Then researchers turned off the

hand control and substituted the reconstructed signal. Monkeys could

still move the cursor. The gap between mind and machine was bridged.

Published in the journal Nature, the experiments were conducted by

current and former Brown students – Mijail Serruya, Liam Paninski and

Fellows. Hatsopolous, a former student and professor

now at the University of Chicago, was also part of the team.

Serruya has completed his medical and doctoral studies and now works at

Cyberkinetics as a clinical scientist. Seeing the device at work in the

lab was thrilling, Serruya said. But watching it at work in a human, he

said, is fulfilling.

“At first it was just cool from a scientific point of view,” he said.

“But now we’re helping someone with a medical need. And that is great.”

The Cyberkinetics pilot study, based at the Sargent Rehabilitation

Center in Warwick, is overseen by Jon Mukand, M.D., a clinical assistant

professor of orthopaedics at Brown Medical School. Mukand will present

the early findings at today’s meeting. Brown faculty will present

similar data at the annual Society for Neuroscience conference in San

Diego later this month.

As many as four other quadriplegics will be enrolled in the pilot study,

which was approved last spring by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Final results are expected sometime next year. A second, larger trial

must be completed before BrainGate can go on the market.

http://www.brown.edu