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United States Paralysed man asks for beer with just his thoughts; a microchip brain implant made it possible
Paralysed man asks for beer using just his thoughts.
Photo : iStock
- The unidentified German patient was diagnosed in 2015 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
- He was able to communicate with his family for the first time in years with the help of a microchip brain implant.
- Medics implanted two microchips, each measuring about 1.5mm across, in the patient’s motor cortex.
Imagine being able to do things or give orders by just using your brain and not by speaking or gesticulating.
What may have sounded futuristic a few years has now become a noteworthy breakthrough in the medical industry.
Recently, a paralysed man was able to communicate with his family for the first time in years with the help of a microchip brain implant.
The unidentified German patient was diagnosed in 2015 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) a rare progressive nervous system disease that leads to the loss of muscle control. For the first time in over six years, he was able to communicate with his family members. But he did something remarkable as well – he managed to ask for a beer by just using his thoughts.
The German patient was just 30-years-old when he was diagnosed with ALS. The disease caused loss of body control but the man's cognitive function remained the same.
This enabled medics to implant two microchips, each measuring about 1.5mm across, in the patient’s motor cortex.
The motor cortex is the region at the top of the human brain that is responsible for controlling movement.
But that was not enough to get the man to communicate through a screen. The medics and researchers had to train the patient to imagine physical movements in order to try and get a reliable signal from the brain.
If any transmission was made, the researchers would translate it into some sort of command. However, the initial attempts were not successful.
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In the next few attempts, researchers Ujwal Chaudhary and Niels Birbaumer then tried neurofeedback, which produced desired results. In neurofeedback, a person is shown their brain activity in real-time. The medics were hopeful that the man could learn to control it.
It wasn't long before the microchips inside the man's brain recorded an increase in activities. And in just two days, he learned how to control the frequency of his tone.
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In the next step, the researchers used a technique similar to the eye movement that allowed the patine to choose or dismiss letters.
The man had the choice of using a rising or descending tone to either select or dismiss a letter
"Many times, I was with him until midnight or past midnight. The last word was always “beer”," said Chaudhary.
