Ian Burkhart was not only able to move his fingers after being paraplegic, but he could do to play guitar.
Young Ohio, United States, succeeded after a chip was implanted in the brain.
The special sensor reads brain signals then by a computer that stimulates your muscles with electricity are encoded to generate movement in them.
Researchers hope the technology used in Burkhart, over time, serve to help millions of people with paralysis, stroke or brain damage.
The American, 24, was seriously injured in a diving accident almost six years ago.
The damage to his spinal cord caused the orders of his brain can not reach the rest of your body.
He was paralyzed below the elbows and without the ability to walk.
However, Burkhart now celebrating the great surprise of being able to move your hand again, after a procedure developed by Ohio State University.
chip
A sensor was implanted in the brain to read Ian activity of hundreds of neurons in the motor cortex.
Then he took hours of practice teaching a sophisticated computer program how to interpret the brain signals myriad of Burkhart.
Ian received a special sleeve with 130 prepared electrodes to stimulate and contract different muscles in his right arm.
The finding, published in the journal Nature, showed that you can grab and move large objects, empty the contents of a bottle and even pass a credit card.
Burkhart reported that the first sessions were "as exams seven hours" that left him "completely and mentally fatigued and exhausted ."
"You have to break down each every part of a movement and think of the most concentrated possible. During the first 19 years of my life was something I took for granted," he described the young.
The following steps
Ian dreams of a recovery of all the functions of your hands that allow him to " be more independent and not have to depend on people for simple tasks of everyday life ."
The Ohio study marks a significant milestone in the field of using computers to overcome spinal cord injuries.
In 2012, a woman used her thoughts to control the robotic arm, but this time, a patient could control her body again.
Dr. Ali Rezai, the neurosurgeon who implanted brain chip, said that "this provides hope for many patients in the future, as this technology evolves to help people with disabilities to become more independent."
One of the great challenges for this field will make these feats in the laboratory into something that can be used in everyday life.
This is a technique that requires surgery, long training sessions, and bulky wires.
Also, you need a computer to perform the complex algorithms to read the brain.
The motor cortex has millions of neurons, and only a few hundred of them are read by the chip.
It is expected that improvements in technology are getting closer to a restoration of the full functions of the arm.
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