Implant may help brain rewire after stroke

 Unlikely to help persons like me where most of the motor and pre-motor cortex is dead. Ask your competent? doctor EXACTLY how they are going to get that area recovered. If they don't quote Pedro Bach-y-Rita's recovery; THEY KNOW NOTHING! Get rid of them!

Pedro Bach-y-Rita (13 posts to May 2011)

Brainstem stroke recovery How Pedro recovered in here.

Or are your doctors and hospital so fucking incompetent they don't know about

Pedro Bach-y-Rita? It's only been 67 years!

Implant may help brain rewire after stroke

UW Medicine surgeons have implanted a device they hope will stimulate a stroke patient's brain to restore lost function.Media Contact: Susan Gregg, UW Medicine, sghanson@uw.edu, 206-390-3226 Susan Gregg Harborview neurosurgeons Andrew Ko and Ben Grannan implant a device they hope will stimulate a stroke patient's brain to rewire to regain arm and leg functions. Neurosurgeons at the University of Washington School of Medicine have implanted a device they hope will help stroke patients recover lost function by stimulating their brains to rewire. The device was implanted July 22, 2025, in a 52-year-old man who over the past years had several strokes that severely affected his ability to use his arm and leg. The patient recovered partial use of the limbs with rehabilitation, but the improvement was limited. “People often get some function back after a stroke, but not all,” said neurosurgeon Jeffrey Ojemann, vice chair for discovery and professor of neurological surgery at the UW School of Medicine and the study’s co-principal investigator. “We want to see whether by stimulating the brain during rehabilitation sessions we can help them regain more function.” Andrew Ko, an associate professor of neurological surgery at the UW School of Medicine, implanted the device in an operation at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. He heads the UW Medicine Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery Program. The study is being done in collaboration with the University of California, Los Angeles, where co-principal investigator and stroke neurologist Steven Cramer, UCLA professor of neurology, is leading the effort. The device is developed and manufactured by CorTec GmbH in Freiburg, Germany. This is the first time it has been used in a human. Its implantation, said CorTec CEO Frank Desiere, who holds a Ph.D. in life sciences, “marks a milestone for European medical neurotechnology and underscores CorTec’s emergence as Germany’s first implantable brain computer interface developer that is moving onto the global stage.” Movement of the muscles—such as those that move the arms and legs—is controlled by a strip of interconnected neurons that runs over the top of the brain and is called the motor cortex. Thousands to tens of thousands of neurons may contribute to a neural circuit controlling a single movement.  These brain regions receive signals from many other parts of the brain and spinal cord. These regions then send the spinal cord signals that control the contraction of muscles. Some regions are primarily dedicated to the performance of a specific movement, whereas others may be dedicated to other contexts. Strokes cause physical disability by destroying brain regions and connections involved in specific movements. Depending on the extent and location of the damage, the disability can be severe. In many cases, functional use of the affected body part (such as the hand) can be lost. But if enough brain regions survive and remain connected, they can strengthen their existing connections and form new ones to help restore function, at least in part. In addition, brain regions that were not directly involved can be induced to contribute more to the circuit’s activity. Rehabilitation exercises help promote this rewiring by activating damaged circuits. The study team is seeking to enlist this effect by using electrical impulses from the device to induce neurons to fire together when the patient tries to perform certain movements during rehabilitation sessions. The simultaneous firing of the neurons is thought to promote stronger connections between surviving regions.  Timing is crucial, said Ojemann “You want to activate the neurons when the brain is doing something you want to improve. The real power of this method is that it gets the two areas of the brain to train together.” Susan Gregg Several members of the brain device implant team in the operating room with neurosurgeon Jeff Ojemann (foreground) and neuromodulation engineer Jeffrey Herron (center). The implant consists of two soft, thin silicon sheets embedded with tiny electrodes. The sheets are placed on the surface of the brain over the area affected by the stroke. The electrodes can detect brain waves and emit electrical impulses to stimulate the brain.(In my case that area is totally dead! See scans at bottom of blog. What are your solutions to that common problem?) The electrodes are connected to a small device implanted in the skull. This device wirelessly relays information through the skin to a computer that can analyze changes in brain waves and adjust the electrical impulses for maximum effect. The study will include both rehabilitation sessions and extended monitoring of the patient’s neural signals, said Jeffrey Herron, an associate professor of neurological surgery at the UW School of Medicine who holds a Ph.D. in eletrical engineering. He is an expert in brain-computer interfaces and will lead the study’s engineering aspects.  The device will be removed after about nine months. “It’s a rehab enhancement device, not a treatment,” Herron said. “The idea is to implant the device, have the patient go through rehab while receiving stimulation, hopefully acquire long-lasting improvements, and then remove the device.” Four patients will be enrolled in the safety trial. Another eight will be enrolled in a follow-up study. The five-year study is funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (grant UH3NS121565). For details about UW Medicine, please visit http://uwmedicine.org/about.

FDA approves CorTec’s implant system for stroke rehabilitation study

Not for me. 

Video here: CorTec Brain Interchange System - Closed Loop Brain Computer Interface

FDA approves CorTec’s implant system for stroke rehabilitation study

The study will explore the potential of cortical stimulation in stroke rehabilitation to enhance brain plasticity.

May 24, 2024

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The Brain Interchange implant system will deliver direct cortical electrical stimulation as part of the treatment. Credit: PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval for an investigational device exemption (IDE) application by the University of Washington School of Medicine to conduct an early feasibility study using CorTec’s Brain Interchange implant system.

This study will explore the potential of cortical stimulation in stroke rehabilitation to enhance brain plasticity by utilising the closed-loop Brain Interchange implant system.

The Brain Interchange System is a fully implantable closed-loop brain-computer interface (BCI) that has now been cleared for human use. This technology is expected to open new avenues for the investigation of therapies for neurological diseases.

CorTec chief technology officer Dr Martin Schuettler said: “The system is capable of interchanging information between biology and technology, between brain and computer. That’s why we call it CorTec Brain Interchange.

“With our system, we are providing the technological tools that are needed to develop new therapies and brain-computer interface applications.”

The IDE study, which marks the first human application of the Brain Interchange System, is planned to be conducted in collaboration with experts in the field.

This study could pave the way for innovative treatments that could significantly impact stroke rehabilitation practices.

Do you want to regain the physical and mental powers of your 20s? Here’s what to know about brain implants before you say ‘yes.’

 FYI.

Earlier articles on it here:

• brain implants (11 posts to September 2012)

Do you want to regain the physical and mental powers of your 20s? Here’s what to know about brain implants before you say ‘yes.’

By

Leida Snow

Neural brain implants have tremendous potential to change society — for good and for bad: The staggering promise of the technology blinds us to the dangers, experts say

Those who would opt-in to get brain implants would be smarter, healthier super-humans who would be able to cure cancer and get the paralyzed to walk. But the risks to humanity are enormous.

This article is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org.

Nobody really knows what happens to you when your brain is hacked. “Our brains haven’t evolved enough over time, while the world has,” says neuroscientist Moran Cerf.

If you told older adults that with a brain implant they would regain the physical and mental powers of their 20s, they would be amazed and thrilled. If you explained that in order to accomplish that, the necessary brain chip would override their existing mental functioning, many wouldn’t process the risk-to-benefit ratio.

The promise of neural implants is nothing short of astounding. According to a Reuters Special Report, Elon Musk’s Neuralink company has predicted this technology will “make the paralyzed walk, the blind see, and eventually turn people into cyborgs.”

See: Elon Musk’s brain-implant company Neuralink says it has FDA approval for first human clinical study

On a less global level, the predictions are still mind-warping. Cerf predicts that in the not-too-distant future, you could learn a foreign language or eliminate a destructive habit without breaking a sweat. But Cerf also believes the staggering promise of today’s science and technology blinds us to the dangers.

Born in Paris, Cerf, 46, claims citizenship to France, Israel and the U.S. With a BS in physics, an MA in philosophy, and a Ph.D. in neuroscience, he was professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and currently is professor of neuroscience and business at Columbia University.

What to know about neural implants

1. Cerf’s scientific research is in a “sexy niche,” he says: neural (brain) implants. Neuroscientists focus on the brain and its impact on behavior and cognitive functions. High profile names are in the exploration race of brain-computer interface. These include Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos. Among elite universities, there’s research at Cornell, Columbia, NYU, MIT and the University of California, and implant surgery at prestigious institutions like the Mayo Clinic.

Deep-brain-stimulation (DBS) devices for humans have been around since 2008, when the FDA first approved them for essential tremors and Parkinson’s disease. Brain implants, also called neural implants, are connected directly to a subject’s brain. Today, more than 150,000 people globally have received a DBS implant.

2. Nobody really knows what happens when your will is taken over by a brain implant. As Cerf projects it, those who would opt-in to get these implants would have far superior brains. They would be so much smarter, so much healthier. These super-humans would be able to cure cancer and — as long as someone’s brain is still working — get the paralyzed to walk.

People who use wheelchairs might stop listening and not hear the warning that their brains would be hacked. What they would remember is the promise of walking. And if they opted in, from then on, they wouldn’t know if what they were doing was really their choice or the result of how the neural implant and the algorithms guided them.

Individuals might buy products previously avoided or vote for candidates previously rejected. This is wildly different from advertising, where your judgment can accept or reject what’s offered. With an implant, you would feel like you selected something, but you could have been nudged in a direction you might not have chosen — whether that’s salad over cake or a particular political candidate.

3. We could be moving into two species. Worse, according to Cerf, is that “when you change the brain of some people you are actually moving to two species” — those who can afford these implants and those who cannot. Currently, he explains, there’s inequality, but the level with technology is of a different magnitude. It’s comparable, he says, to how the human race differs from other animals. Think of the smartest gorillas and how far they are from humans. That’s what it would be like for the most brilliant current human compared to one of these people with an implant.

Read: What neuroscientists have learned about rejuvenating the aging brain—and what you can do too

And that, Cerf emphasizes, is what he is up against. As a passionate neuroscientist, Cerf is “totally committed” to his research. But he watches with concern as people learn more about the thrilling possibilities that will start to emerge.

4. These technologies will have immense unforeseen consequences. They require checks and balances. “There should be guardrails,” Cerf says. He wants more control over what’s coming. And that’s where an older cohort may come in, because people in their 50s, 60s and beyond will want to embrace the good, but may also have the judgment that comes with experience to want some protections. “People need to know,” Cerf says.

5. Find out how to protect yourself—and the future. Educate yourself, and talk with your friends. Find out what opinions political candidates hold. Advocate for what Cerf calls “protections and guardrails.”

Nick Bostrom, Director of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, looks at the world through the prism of ethics. He cautions that for every magnificent advance promised, there is also the potential to destroy civilization. That we haven’t figured out how to control what we create and make it safe, how to align our discoveries with human values and intentions.

Plus: Who’s most likely to lose their job to AI?

6. Experts in three fields are sounding the alarm. Cerf watched with dismay during the last two presidential elections, when not one question was posed about Artificial Intelligence. “Everything is moving so fast,” he explains. And “all is driven by commercial companies.” We internalize the good, he says. But experts are pointing to the dangers.

Artificial Intelligence pioneer Geoffrey Hinton warns that in the not too distant future, we will “not be able to know what is true anymore.” There’s also biologist Michael Spector‘s “Higher Animals” audiobook, cautioning that technology, combined with biological advances, could mean devastation for the human race.

Related: Artificial intelligence is coming for seniors: AI’s dark side targets older adults in scams

In the world of neuroscience and brain implants, Cerf says “we’re at a fork in the road. There’s the opportunity to harness all the new technology or face a doomsday.”

To learn more:

• Moran Cerf TED and Google talks
• Stanford Cyber Policy Center
• Existential Risk
• Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

Leida Snow is an award-winning journalist and communications coach. Follow her @LeidaSnow 

This article is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org, ©2023 Twin Cities Public Television, Inc. All rights reserved.

New brain implants ‘read’ words directly from people’s thoughts

You can not expect your doctors and stroke hospital to follow this up to see where is could help aphasia or locked in persons. They do absolutely nothing with any research. 

New brain implants ‘read’ words directly from people’s thoughts

Devices could permit communication from people with paralysis and others unable to speak

To restore someone’s lost ability to communicate, scientists used experimental brain implants to turn internal speech into external signals.

Malte Mueller/fstop/Getty Images Plus

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By Laura Sanders

November 15, 2022 at 7:00 am

SAN DIEGO — Scientists have devised ways to “read” words directly from brains. Brain implants can translate internal speech into external signals, permitting communication from people with paralysis or other diseases that steal their ability to talk or type.

New results from two studies, presented November 13 at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, “provide additional evidence of the extraordinary potential” that brain implants have for restoring lost communication, says neuroscientist and neurocritical care physician Leigh Hochberg.

Some people who need help communicating can currently use devices that require small movements, such as eye gaze changes. Those tasks aren’t possible for everyone. So the new studies targeted internal speech, which requires a person to do nothing more than think.

“Our device predicts internal speech directly, allowing the patient to just focus on saying a word inside their head and transform it into text,” says Sarah Wandelt, a neuroscientist at Caltech. Internal speech “could be much simpler and more intuitive than requiring the patient to spell out words or mouth them.”

Neural signals associated with words are detected by electrodes implanted in the brain. The signals can then be translated into text, which can be made audible by computer programs that generate speech.

That approach is “really exciting, and reinforces the power of bringing together fundamental neuroscience, neuroengineering and machine learning approaches for the restoration of communication and mobility,” says Hochberg, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and Brown University in Providence, R.I. 

Wandelt and colleagues could accurately predict which of eight words a person who was paralyzed below the neck was thinking. The man was bilingual, and the researchers could detect both English and Spanish words.

Electrodes picked up nerve cell signals in his posterior parietal cortex, a brain area involved in speech and hand movements. A brain implant there might eventually be used to control devices that can perform tasks usually done by a hand too, Wandelt says.

Another approach, led by neuroscientist Sean Metzger of the University of California, San Francisco and his colleagues, relied on spelling. The participant was a man called Pancho who hadn’t been able to speak for more than 15 years after a car accident and stroke. In the new study, Pancho didn’t use letters; instead, he attempted to silently say code words, such as “alpha” for A and “echo” for E.

By stringing these code letters into words, the man produced sentences such as “I do not want that” and “You have got to be kidding.” Each spelling session would end when the man attempted to squeeze his hand, thereby creating a movement-related neural signal that would stop the decoding. These results presented at the neuroscience meeting were also published November 8 in Nature Communications.

This system allowed Pancho to produce around seven words per minute. That’s faster than the roughly five words per minute his current communication device can make, but much slower than normal speech, typically about 150 words a minute. “That’s the speed we’d love to hit one day,” Metzger says.

To be useful, the current techniques will need to get faster and more accurate. It’s also unclear whether the technology will work for other people, perhaps with more profound speech disorders. “These are still early days for the technologies,” Hochberg says.

Progress will be possible only with the help of people who volunteer for the studies. “The field will continue to benefit from the incredible people who enroll in clinical trials,” says Hochberg, “as their participation is absolutely vital to the successful translation of these early findings into clinical utility.”

Questions or comments on this article? E-mail us at feedback@sciencenews.org

Otago University team's electrifying stroke recovery solution defies traditional thinking - implant on good side

Video at link.

Otago University team's electrifying stroke recovery solution defies traditional thinking

 

A Dunedin neuroscientist has discovered a new way to help people recover from stroke, by implanting an electrode into the undamaged side of the brain.

In a world-first, Professor John Reynolds and his team at Otago University have gone against traditional thinking, targeting the healthy side of the brain, rather than the area around the stroke, with electrical stimulation.

"Putting an electrode in the healthy side of the brain when someone has a stroke on the other side is really not a conventional thing to do," Reynolds said.

"We are potentially putting something that could be risky on the good side."

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Studies show a third of the 9,000 people who have a stroke each year will never regain full movement.

Reynolds theorised that the healthy side of the brain was overcompensating for the damaged side, and inhibiting its recovery.

But to test his theory, he needed the help of the only man in the world with a patent for the technology - pioneering Belgian neurosurgeon Dirk de Ridder.

He had also tried to treat the damaged part of the brain, without success.

"So when John came up with this new idea to treat the healthy part in order to influence the diseased part. I thought it was a brilliant idea," he said.

Together, they developed a novel device, and with funding from the Ageing Well National Science Challenge, were able to put it to the test.

During surgery, de Ridder places an electrode over the brain's motor cortex, which controls movement.

A wire is tunnelled under the skin to the chest, where a stimulator is implanted - similar to a pacemaker.

"From a surgical point of view, it's very safe. We don't even see the brain because it is covered by the dura mater," he said.

Two men volunteered to trial the device, including 61-year-old Paul Robertston-Linch.

Four years ago he had a stroke at work, which initially robbed him of his speech, and all movement down his right side.

Despite rehabilitation, he still couldn't use his right arm and hand.

"I guess it fascinated me," he said.

"I thought 'I've got nothing to lose.'"

He can't feel the stimulator at all, which is only activated by another device when he has physio.

Reynolds said the initial results are exciting.

The men couldn't grip anything when they started, and at the end could lift at least 7kg.

More importantly, they had regained fine motor skills which can hamper stroke patients.

"The stimulator doesn't make them better - it's the rehabilitation. What we are trying to do is allow parts of the brain to wake up during that session and form new connections."

Otago University's Professor John Reynolds consults 61-year-old Paul Robertston-Linch, who volunteered to wear a device designed to help with stroke recovery. Photo / Supplied

For Robertston-Linch, the treatment has been life-changing.

"I couldn't hold my toothbrush when I came here.

"Now I can hold it and get it up to my face… I can open and close the door. It's fantastic.

"I often have dreams that my arm is all better and it's an amazing feeling, so I hold on to those dreams."

The Otago University team now hope to secure more funding so a bigger trial can go ahead, which they hope will lead to this technology being widely used to treat stroke patients.

- Aotearoa Science Agency

This $100-million Startup Plans to Put Chips Into Human Brains to Enhance Intelligence

I could use this. What is your doctor doing to follow this up with interventions that might help fix your cognitive decline?
http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/this-startup-plans-to-put-chips-into-human-brains-to-enhance-intelligence

• November 11, 2017

by Paul Ratner

If you could, would you delete some memories you don't like and replace them with much better ones? How far are you willing to go to tweak your brain if doing so could give you super abilities? 

These are not just hypothetical questions to Bryan Johnson, the founder of the brain-hacking startup Kernel. He believes that in the next 15 years humans will be able to greatly expand their brain's natural abilities, and he put $100 million of his own money to make that happen.

Speaking recently at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Johnson said that in the next two decades, researchers should develop tools for the brain that will allow us to "pose any question we wanted" -

“For example, could I have a perfect memory?" asked Johnson. "Could I delete my memories? Could I increase my rate of learning, could I have brain to brain communication? Imagine a scenario where I say ‘I want to know what it’s like to be a cowboy in the American west in the 1800s?’ and someone creates that experience mentally. I’m able to take that and purchase that from that person and experience that.”

The current focus for Kernel, called by Johnson a "human intelligence (HI) company," will be on developing new tech to treat neurological diseases. 

They want to build a tiny implantable chip, called a "neuroprosthetic" that will help people suffering from damage caused by strokes, concussions or Alzheimer's disease. But Kernel's ultimate objective looks towards the future, to continue developing the chip for the purpose of the brain's "cognitive enhancement." 

The company's mission statement describes their goals this way:

"To further explore our own human boundaries, a wave of new technologies needs to emerge that can access, read, and write from the most powerful tool we have — the human brain."

Could Johnson pull this off? The entrepreneur has been successful in his ventures so far, making money by founding and selling the payments company Braintree to Paypal for $800 million in 2013.

Johnson is also not the only one betting on a future where our brains have enhancements. Elon Musk is also developing a brain-computer interface and has founded a company to make what he calls "neural mesh" a reality.

You can hear Johnson's speech at the Web Summit here:

Scientists have created brain implants that could boost our memory by up to 30%

Has your doctor measured your memory loss due to stroke and suggested a protocol to bring it back to normal?
http://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-have-created-brain-implants-that-could-boost-our-memory-by-up-to-30-2017-11

• Our memories could one day get a boost from a new brain implant device, according to a new study.
• Researchers looked at how our brains naturally process memories in order to mimic what they do with micro-electric shocks.
• The device can boost performance on memory tests by up to 30%, according to the study.

---

We'd all love to have a better memory. If there was a tool that could make us better at retaining information for exams, or at remembering important facts for a presentation or interview, we would probably pay good money for it.
This is what researchers have been working on at the University of Southern California. According to New Scientist, the team have developed a "memory prosthesis" brain implant, which could enhance human memory. Their findings were presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington DC.
The device is made up of electrodes which are implanted in the brain. It's supposed to mimic the way we naturally process memories by giving small electric shocks to the hippocampus — the region of the brain involved in learning and memory. These electric burts imitate normal brain activity patterns, so the researchers hope it could help people with memory disorders such as dementia.
A group of 20 volunteers were fitted with the electrodes, and asked to participate in a training session where they were given a simple memory game. Each participant was shown images in a short presentation, then had to recall what they had seen up to 75 seconds later.
The researchers then looked at the responses of neurons in the subjects' brains to see which regions were activated while they were using their memory.

In a second session, the implants were used to stimulate these specific brain areas with micro-electric shocks.
According to the study, the device can boost performance on memory tests by up to 30%. The researchers hope in the future it could be adapted to be used as a tool to improve memory, vision, or movement.
"We are writing the neural code to enhance memory function," Dong Song, associate professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Southern California, and one of the authors of the study told New Scientist. "This has never been done before."

This Technology Could Finally Make Brain Implants Practical

Or would these be better?

1.  nanowires

2.  lay a grid across the cortex 

 

The latest here:

This Technology Could Finally Make Brain Implants Practical

Harvard Medical School is testing a new design of a brain implant meant to restore vision to the blind.

• by Tom Simonite
• February 9, 2017

In labs testing how brain implants could help people with physical disabilities, tales of success can be bittersweet.
Experiments like those that let a paralyzed person swig coffee using a robotic arm, or that let blind people “see” spots of light, have proven the huge potential of computers that interface with the brain. But the implanted electrodes used in such trials eventually become useless, as scar tissue forms that degrades their electrical connection to brain cells (see “The Thought Experiment”).
Next month, tests will begin in monkeys of a new implant for piping data into the brain that is designed to avoid that problem. The project is intended to lead to devices that can restore vision to blind people long-term.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School will use a new kind of implant that will go beneath the skull but can rest on the surface of an animal’s brain, instead of penetrating inside the organ. An array of microscopic coils inside the hair-like device can generate powerful, highly targeted magnetic fields to induce electrical activity at particular locations in the brain tissue underneath. The implant will also be tested when placed inside brain tissue.
The device will be used to stimulate the visual cortex of the monkeys to try and re-create the activity normally triggered by signals from the eyes—creating the sensation of sight without the eyes’ input. Ultimately, the goal is to use the implant to convert signals from a camera into brain activity. Unlike conventional electrodes, the coils' effectiveness shouldn't degrade over time. Magnetic fields aren't impeded by tissue forming around an implant as electric currents are.
The three-year project is supported by a multi-million dollar grant under the BRAIN initiative, created by President Obama to improve scientists’ understanding of how the brain works. “At the end of that we hope to have monkeys be able to navigate a maze, just by perceiving light and dark or basic geometric patterns,” says Bernard Casse, a researcher at the PARC research institute, owned by Xerox, where the new implant design was invented.
PARC’s design is already being tested in mice by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital. Last December they published results showing that the tiny coils could trigger whisker movements in the animals by stimulating neurons inside their brains. The University of Florida is also collaborating on the project, and will study long-term stability of the implants in rats.
Todd Coleman, an associate professor at the University of California, San Diego, says that the new approach is promising, although it will be some time before it becomes clear how exactly it could be used in humans. If the technology proves useful, its use cases don’t have to be limited to the brain, he says.
“There could be very nice applications in other parts of the body,” says Coleman. He suggests the tiny coils could be used to modulate activity in the system of more than 100 million neurons associated with the human digestive system, for example, to help people with conditions in which the gut doesn’t move food along as it should. Casse says he is interested in exploring use of the technology on the vagus nerve in the chest to control symptoms of PTSD.

Paralysed people could walk again instantly after scientists prove brain implant works in primates

Unlikely to help stroke survivors unless the motor and pre-motor cortex are completely undamaged.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/11/09/paralysed-people-could-walk-again-instantly-after-scientists-pro/?

Paralysed people could walk again instantly after scientists developed a brain implant which turns thought into electrical signals in the spine so that lost feeling can be restored after injury.
Currently people who break their backs or suffer a spinal trauma are unable to stand or move even though their legs still work, because the signal which connects their brains to their muscles is disconnected.

But an international team of scientists have shown it is possible to bypass the injury and reconnect the brain signals to electrodes at an undamaged part of the spine.  

 

Two monkeys who were temporarily paralysed in one leg were able to walk again instantly using the technique, which could be available for humans within a decade.
"For the first time, I can imagine a completely paralysed patient able to move their legs through this brain-spine interface, said neurosurgeon Jocelyne Bloch of the Lausanne University Hospital.

Neuroscientist Dr Erwan Bezard of Bordeaux University who oversaw the experiments added: "The primates were able to walk immediately once the brain-spine interface was activated. No physiotherapy or training was necessary.”
Humans are able to move because electrical signals originating in the brain's motor cortex travel down to the lumbar region in the lower spinal cord, where they activate motor neurons that coordinate the movement of muscles responsible for extending and flexing the leg.
But injury to the upper spine can cut off communication between the brain and lower spinal cord.
To create a device which mimicked the natural communication of the brain and muscles, scientists needed to decode signals from the motor cortex and turn them into electronic signals which could fire electrodes and stimulate nerves in the spine.

Watch | Watch as this monkey limps until the implant is turned on 00:24

The device works wirelessly so only two small implants are needed, one in the brain and one in the spine.
It was tested on two macaque monkeys with lesions that spanned half the spinal cord and who could not walk on one leg. When turned on, the animals began spontaneously moving their legs while walking on a treadmill.
“With the system turned on, the animals in our study had nearly normal locomotion," said Dr David Borton, assistant professor of engineering at Brown and one of the study's co-lead authors.
Previous studies have shown that it is possible to use signals decoded from the brain to control movement of a robotic or prosthetic hands but it has never been shown to help stimulate muscles directly.
The researchers say not only could it help paralysed people to walk again, but in the long term may even encourage the regrowth of damaged circuits.
"There's an adage in neuroscience that circuits that fire together wire together," added Dr Borton.
"The idea here is that by engaging the brain and the spinal cord together, we may be able to enhance the growth of circuits during rehabilitation. That's one of the major goals of this work and a goal of this field in general."

The researchers say the device still has several limitations. Presently the signalling only works one way so sensations do not pass back to the brain and it is also unclear how much weight the legs can bear.
However British experts said the experiment was ‘very promising and exciting.’
“It is an important step forward in our understanding of how we could improve motor recovery in patients affected by spinal cord injury by using brain-spinal interface approaches,” said Prof Simone Di Giovanni, Chair in Restorative Neuroscience, Imperial College London.
“In principle this is reproducible in human patients. The issue will be how much this approach will contribute to functional recovery that impacts on the quality of life. This is still very uncertain.”
Dr Andrew Jackson, of the Movement Laboratory at the Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, added: "The idea of using electronic implants to bypass damaged neural pathways dates back to the 1970s but the twenty-first century has seen remarkable progress in this field.
"It is not unreasonable to speculate that we could see the first clinical demonstrations of interfaces between the brain and spinal cord by the end of the decade."
The research was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Neuroscientist Dr Erwan Bezard of Bordeaux University who oversaw the experiments added: "The primates were able to walk immediately once the brain-spine interface was activated. No physiotherapy or training was necessary.”
Humans are able to move because electrical signals originating in the brain's motor cortex travel down to the lumbar region in the lower spinal cord, where they activate motor neurons that coordinate the movement of muscles responsible for extending and flexing the leg.
But injury to the upper spine can cut off communication between the brain and lower spinal cord.
To create a device which mimicked the natural communication of the brain and muscles, scientists needed to decode signals from the motor cortex and turn them into electronic signals which could fire electrodes and stimulate nerves in the spine.

The device works wirelessly so only two small implants are needed, one in the brain and one in the spine.
It was tested on two macaque monkeys with lesions that spanned half the spinal cord and who could not walk on one leg. When turned on, the animals began spontaneously moving their legs while walking on a treadmill.
“With the system turned on, the animals in our study had nearly normal locomotion," said Dr David Borton, assistant professor of engineering at Brown and one of the study's co-lead authors.
Previous studies have shown that it is possible to use signals decoded from the brain to control movement of a robotic or prosthetic hands but it has never been shown to help stimulate muscles directly.
The researchers say not only could it help paralysed people to walk again, but in the long term may even encourage the regrowth of damaged circuits.
"There's an adage in neuroscience that circuits that fire together wire together," added Dr Borton.
"The idea here is that by engaging the brain and the spinal cord together, we may be able to enhance the growth of circuits during rehabilitation. That's one of the major goals of this work and a goal of this field in general."

'Bionic spinal cord' helps stroke victims walk again: Brain implant lets patients control an exoskeleton using their MIND

I'm assuming this wouldn't work for me since my motor and premotor cortex are dead. Secondly they don't refer to being able to overcome spasticity.  I wonder if the title is wrong and this is supposed to be for spinal cord injuries.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3437375/Bionic-spinal-cord-help-stroke-victims-walk-Brain-implant-lets-patients-control-exoskeleton-using-MIND.html?

• Australian researchers developed the paperclip-sized brain implant
• It records brain activity and converts the signals to move an exoskeleton
• 'Revolutionary' device could give paralysed patience independence back
• The first in-human trial is planned for 2017 at The Royal Melbourne Hospital

More than 15 million people suffer strokes worldwide each year, with a third of victims left permanently disabled.

However, there is fresh hope for those left paralysed after researchers developed what they have called a 'bionic spinal cord' 

The bionic cord consists of a paperclip-sized implant that lets wearers control an exoskeleton with just the power of thought. 

+8

Scientists have tested the world's first minimally-invasive 'brain-machine interface' (pictured) that records brain activity and converts it into electrical commands to move an exoskeleton. The implant consists of a stent-based electrode, or 'stentrode' that's implanted within a blood vessel in the brain

The implant consists of a stent-based electrode, or 'stentrode' that's implanted within a blood vessel in the brain. 

It then records the type of neural activity that's been shown to move limbs through an exoskeleton or to control bionic limbs.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3437375/Bionic-spinal-cord-help-stroke-victims-walk-Brain-implant-lets-patients-control-exoskeleton-using-MIND.html#ixzz3zhwRkIzQ
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Implant Could Bridge Lost Brain Connections to Reanimate Paralyzed Limbs

While this is very interesting most people are going to read too much into the ability to help stroke survivors.  This is only going to be helpful for those strokes that leave the motor and premotor cortex intact.  Mainly damage to the white matter which your doctor has no clue about how to objectively determine that damage. This wouldn't help me at all unless the initiation connection point would be in my executive control area.
http://www.mdtmag.com/news/2015/12/implant-could-bridge-lost-brain-connections-reanimate-paralyzed-limbs?

In the next decade, people who have suffered a spinal cord injury or stroke could have their mobility improved or even restored through a radically new technology: implantable devices that can send signals between regions of the brain or nervous system that have been disconnected due to injury.
That's the mission driving the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering, a University of Washington-led effort that includes researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, San Diego State University and other partners.
To support development of this much-needed technology, the National Science Foundation recently renewed the center's funding. It has awarded $16 million over the next four years to support research on implantable devices that promote brain plasticity and reanimate paralyzed limbs.
"There's a huge unmet need, especially with an aging population of baby boomers, for developing the next generation of medical devices for helping people with progressive or traumatic neurological conditions such as stroke and spinal cord injury," said CSNE director and UW professor of computer science and engineering Rajesh Rao.
The goal is to achieve proof-of-concept demonstrations in humans within the next five years, Rao said. This will lay the groundwork for eventual clinical devices approved by the Food and Drug Administration, in collaboration with the center's industry partners.
CSNE was founded in 2011 with an $18.5 million NSF grant. Since then, its interdisciplinary team of neuroscientists, engineers, computer scientists, neurosurgeons, ethicists and industry partners has led the way in developing 'bi-directional' implantable devices that can both pick up brain signals and send information to other parts of the nervous system.
The devices record and decode electrical signals generated by the brain when a person forms an intention, for example, to move a hand to pick up a cup. The devices are also able to wirelessly transmit that information, essentially creating a new artificial pathway around damaged areas of the brain or nervous system.
"When Christopher Reeve sustained a spinal cord injury due to a fall from his horse, his brain circuits were still intact and able to form the intention to move, but unfortunately the injury prevented that intention from being conveyed to the spinal cord," Rao said.

Futuristic brain probe allows for wireless control of neurons

Have your doctor respond to when their hospital will be using this for stroke survivors. Never is not a valid answer. This could be used to deliver drugs directly to the brain instead of having to pass thru the blood brain barrier.
http://www.nih.gov/news/health/jul2015/ninds-16.htm
A study showed that scientists can wirelessly determine the path a mouse walks with a press of a button. Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, created a remote controlled, next-generation tissue implant that allows neuroscientists to inject drugs and shine lights on neurons deep inside the brains of mice. The revolutionary device is described online in the journal Cell. Its development was partially funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Mind Bending Probe - Scientists used soft materials to create a brain implant a tenth the width of a human hair that can wirelessly control neurons with lights and drugs. Courtesy of Jeong lab, University of Colorado Boulder.

“It unplugs a world of possibilities for scientists to learn how brain circuits work in a more natural setting.” said Michael R. Bruchas, Ph.D., associate professor of anesthesiology and neurobiology at Washington University School of Medicine and a senior author of the study.
The Bruchas lab studies circuits that control a variety of disorders including stress, depression, addiction, and pain. Typically, scientists who study these circuits have to choose between injecting drugs through bulky metal tubes and delivering lights through fiber optic cables. Both options require surgery that can damage parts of the brain and introduce experimental conditions that hinder animals’ natural movements.
To address these issues, Jae-Woong Jeong, Ph.D., a bioengineer formerly at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, worked with Jordan G. McCall, Ph.D., a graduate student in the Bruchas lab, to construct a remote controlled, optofluidic implant. The device is made out of soft materials that are a tenth the diameter of a human hair and can simultaneously deliver drugs and lights.
“We used powerful nano-manufacturing strategies to fabricate an implant that lets us penetrate deep inside the brain with minimal damage,” said John A. Rogers, Ph.D., professor of materials science and engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a senior author. “Ultra-miniaturized devices like this have tremendous potential for science and medicine.”
With a thickness of 80 micrometers and a width of 500 micrometers, the optofluidic implant is thinner than the metal tubes, or cannulas, scientists typically use to inject drugs. When the scientists compared the implant with a typical cannula they found that the implant damaged and displaced much less brain tissue.
The scientists tested the device’s drug delivery potential by surgically placing it into the brains of mice. In some experiments, they showed that they could precisely map circuits by using the implant to inject viruses that label cells with genetic dyes. In other experiments, they made mice walk in circles by injecting a drug that mimics morphine into the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a region that controls motivation and addiction.
The researchers also tested the device’s combined light and drug delivery potential when they made mice that have light-sensitive VTA neurons stay on one side of a cage by commanding the implant to shine laser pulses on the cells. The mice lost the preference when the scientists directed the device to simultaneously inject a drug that blocks neuronal communication. In all of the experiments, the mice were about three feet away from the command antenna.
“This is the kind of revolutionary tool development that neuroscientists need to map out brain circuit activity,” said James Gnadt, Ph.D., program director at the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).  “It’s in line with the goals of the NIH’s BRAIN Initiative.”
The researchers fabricated the implant using semi-conductor computer chip manufacturing techniques. It has room for up to four drugs and has four microscale inorganic light-emitting diodes. They installed an expandable material at the bottom of the drug reservoirs to control delivery. When the temperature on an electric heater beneath the reservoir rose then the bottom rapidly expanded and pushed the drug out into the brain.
“We tried at least 30 different prototypes before one finally worked,” said Dr. McCall.
“This was truly an interdisciplinary effort,” said Dr. Jeong, who is now an assistant professor of electrical, computer, and energy engineering at University of Colorado Boulder. “We tried to engineer the implant to meet some of neurosciences greatest unmet needs.”
In the study, the scientists provide detailed instructions for manufacturing the implant.
“A tool is only good if it’s used,” said Dr. Bruchas. “We believe an open, crowdsourcing approach to neuroscience is a great way to understand normal and healthy brain circuitry.”
This work was supported by grants from NIH (NS081707, DA037152, DA038752, MH101956), US Department of Energy (DE-FG02-07ER46471, DE-FG02-07ER46453), Department of Defense National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship.
For more information, visit: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/

Seven steps to creating a brain implant

You better hope that this is all figured out before you need this as a result of your strokes.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20141121-how-to-create-a-brain-implant

'Brain window' implant devised

Maybe we could get laser treatments or see what optogenetics can do.
The BBC report here;

'Brain window' implant devised

the abstract and paper it is based upon here;
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1549963413003614

Or you could ask your doctor what use they will make of it to help your recovery.

Brain Implant Could Increase Cognitive Function Of Dementia, Stroke Patients

Cyborg world here we come. I'm not sure I want to live in this world.
 http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1112694757/cybernetic-implant-brain-dementia-cognitive-abilities-091712/