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Mind Over Matter Jun 7, 2004 8:54 pm US/Eastern Imagine being able to move an object by just using your brain. It may sound like something out of a sci-fi movie, but a Foxboro company is now testing a new high-tech system that may allow quadriplegics to do just that. It was the moment that changed Travis Roy's life forever. The star BU hockey player was slammed into the boards nine years ago, and left paralyzed. Travis Roy: Quadriplegic: “From the shoulders down, I don't have any control.” Travis now depends on a home health aide and devices to help him do everyday things. A lot of independence nowadays is through technology and home environmental control units. Currently there are devices available, which are attached to the body, which allow patients to use a computer through their eye movements. But now, a Foxboro company has just received FDA clearance to start human’s trials on a new experimental device called Braingate, which is implanted inside the brain. It’s designed to help quadriplegics move a cursor on a computer, just by thinking! “Movement starts up here in what is the motor cortex of the brain, and what we're trying to do is to detect that movement, and take it outside the body, and put it into a computer.” A small sensor is surgically implanted on the area of the brain, which is responsible for movement. That sensor records electrical signals from the brain, which are fed into a device that interprets them. The interpreted signals are then fed into a computer, where a person's thoughts are used to move a cursor on the computer. “A computer is a gateway for all kinds of things, operating robotics, or potentially operating their own limbs or wheelchairs.” Patients like Travis hope that new devices like Braingate will enable them to be even more independent in the future. Travis Roy: Quadriplegic: “I think it’s great that we're working on so many different avenues that hopefully, we're going to get there and find ways to improve the quality of life.” Cyberkinetics plans to follow the first five patients for a year, if the trials are successful, it hopes to have Braingate on the market within five years.
Aired June 7, 2004 CBS-4 Boston |
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