Implant a boost for the paralysed

A TINY brain implant has enabled a paralysed stroke patient to drink using a ‘bionic’ arm for the first time.

The implant, the size of a small pill, led to a 58-year-old woman who lost the use of her arms and legs 15 years ago being able to move using just the power of thought. The device, called Braingate, works by enabling patients to use brain cells to reach and grasp objects with two different mechanical limbs.

It is made up of a grid of 96 tiny electrodes in the motor cortex – a part of the brain involved in voluntary movement – with the electrodes close enough to individual neurons to pick up brain activity associated with intended movement. An external computer translates the pattern of impulses into commands to operate the robot arms.

The woman used one of the arms, developed by the German Aerospace Centre, to pick up liquid and drink through a straw.

A second patient, a 66-year-old man, was also able to use his bionic to grab a foam object.

Speaking in the journal Nature, neurologist Dr Leigh Hochberg, of Brown University, Rhode Island, USA, said: “Our goal is to develop technology that will restore independence and mobility for people with paralysis or limb loss.”