Medical Malpractice Lawyers

Electronic Implants Respond to Brain Waves of Spinal Injury Patients in Cleveland

Every day, the clients of any spinal injury attorney in Cleveland face a brighter future. Scientists at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland recently used electronics to enable a spinal injury patient to use an implant in his brain to move his arm and hand.
The test marks the first time brain signals have been conveyed directly to electrodes placed in an arm to restore movement, according to Robert Kirsch, a biomedical engineer at Case Western.
The project is a big step towards wireless systems being able to transmit brain signals over airwaves to electronics implanted in the limbs or paralyzed patients. Yet there is still much progress that needs to be made.
“It’s not a fluid natural movement like you are picking up a cup of coffee to drink it,” says John Donoghue, one of the leaders of of BrainGate, a consortium that is developing brain-computer interfaces with the Case Western team told the MIT Technology Review. “But the fact that they got a person to control their own body, to stimulate muscles in a specific way to make them move, and do it from a small patch of brain, is incredible.”
The research is a big step forward that can drastically improve the lives of spinal patients. “If I could take the system I am using right now home with me, I would do it in a heartbeat,” said Ian Burkhart, the participant in the Ohio State study. “There are limitations to it, but they’re easily outweighed by the benefit of being able to grasp something and move it around.”
And that’s good news for both patients and any spinal injury attorney in Cleveland.