A neural bypass lets a paralyzed man feed himself and feel touch again

A single-patient trial restored arm movement and sensation to Keith Thomas, with some gains lasting even when the implant was off.

Keith Thomas of Massapequa, New York, broke his neck diving into a swimming pool in July 2020 at age 42, losing movement from the chest down. In October 2021 he joined a three-year clinical trial of what researchers call a double neural bypass, led by Prof Chad Bouton at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, the research arm of Northwell Health.

Surgeons implanted electrodes in his brain to detect when he intended to move his arms, then routed those signals to his arm and hand muscles. Pressure sensors on his hand and fingers sent touch information back to his brain. After 35 weeks of training, strength rose 86% in his right arm and 62% in his left. He can now feed himself, drink from a cup, handle egg shells and scratch his nose. A technique the team calls cortical mirroring helped restore sensation in a region numb since his accident. Some function persisted even with the system switched off, and gains held for more than two years. The work appears in Nature Medicine.

Restoring function after spinal cord injury moves care from lifelong assistance toward independence. Every task a person can do unaided is care that no longer needs to be purchased or supplied by another.

The results come from one patient. The researchers say it is unclear how much function the technology can restore, and trials with more participants are needed to test whether it works across different injuries.

Source: Guardian