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Ohio State breakthrough lets paralyzed man use his hands (with a guitar hero guitar!)

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jacobeid

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I wasn't sure if this was worthy enough to go in the gaming section, but I decided that there isn't much more to the gaming aspect of the story beyond the title.

Ian and I are the same age, but we went to different high schools in the same town. Six years ago when we were both freshmen in college, he dove into the ocean, slammed his head into a sand bar, and became permanently paralyzed from the chest down. I never knew Ian personally, but the tragedy was deeply felt in the community and he was close with my roommate of three years. She spoke of him often.

Very promising research.

For the experimental treatment, surgeons in 2014 placed a tiny device on his brain that includes 96 electrodes that penetrate just below the surface. It monitors a relatively small population of brain cells in the region that controls movement of his right hand, sampling the activity 3 million times a second.

When Burkhart is in the lab, a cable is attached to a small projection from his skull to carry signals from the sensor to a computer, which interprets what movement he is trying to accomplish. Then it sends commands to an array of up to 160 electrodes strapped to his forearm. Electrical stimulation from those electrodes activates his hand and finger muscles.

"This is taking one's thoughts and, within milliseconds, linking it to concrete movements," said Dr. Ali Rezai, a study author and neurosurgeon at Ohio State University.

With improvements, researchers hope the system will eventually aid the everyday lives of people like Burkhart with spinal cord injuries, and perhaps others with stroke or traumatic brain injury.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/04/13/0413-breakthrough-brain-chip.html

More at the link.

O-H!
 
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