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Apr 18, 2016

Paralyzed man regains control of hand after having chip implanted in brain

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, cyborgs, neuroscience

BMI/ BCs are only going to improve over time and give new lives and chances again to people. Note: this version has limited use outside the medical lab; however, they are working on making one wireless and connected in order to be used anywhere.


Thanks to an experimental treatment that included implanting a chip in his brain, Ian Burkhart was able to regain control of his hand.

Burkhart broke his neck five years ago when he hit the ocean floor while diving off of the coast in North Carolina. The accident left him paralyzed from the chest down with limited movement in his arms and hands, but no feeling in them. On Wednesday, doctors announced Burkhart is able to control his hand using a computer that reads his thoughts and transmits the instructions to the nerves in his hand, bypassing the neck injury.

In 2014, doctors implanted a chip the size of an eraser head in Burkhart’s brain, after he told them he was willing to participate. Burkhart’s father was somewhat hesitant to see his son undergo open brain surgery unnecessarily, but eventually came around to the idea.

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