Brain Chips Help Paralyzed Man Feel His Fingers for the First Time in a Decade

For the first time in over a decade, Nathan Copeland could feel his fingers again. Copeland, who was paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident in 2004, is the latest patient helping researchers test brain implants in a collaborative effort between the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, NBC News reported.

In the test, small chips — four in total — were implanted in Copeland’s sensory cortex — the part of the brain that senses touch. The tiny electrodes then receive signals from a robotic arm, controlled by chips already implanted in his brain prior to the test. To ensure that the test was accurate, Copeland was blindfolded so he couldn’t see what the researchers were doing. And when they pressed on the fingers of the prosthetic limb, Copeland felt the pressure in his paralyzed right hand — bypassing his damaged spinal cord, according to the Washington Post.

And the results of this experiment may be the latest breakthrough in developing next-generation prosthetics that would not only allow paralyzed people to move objects, but also help them regain an almost natural sense of feeling and touch — something that no prosthetic limb had offered before, Mashable reported.

Current technology allows for the electrical stimulation of nerves in the bodies of those who have prosthetics — but, while useful for improving control of artificial limbs, it’s not true sensation. And, without the ability to properly feel touch, prosthetic limb movements can’t fully mimic the functionality of human limbs — and, as a result, their movements tend to be a bit slow and clumsy, the Post reported. But the results of the study in Pittsburgh may point to improved technology and methods being close on the horizon.

The study was certainly a joint venture, too. The study, which was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine lists 10 co-authors, and 10 departments and institutions that took part in the experiment. The brain chips and corresponding systems were created by Blackrock Microsystems, a biotech company based out of Salt Lake City. The robotic arm controlled by Copeland was supplied by a team from John Hopkins University.

Copeland and the researchers weren’t the only ones excited about the results, either. President Obama recently made a pitstop to visit Copeland during a trip to a White House-organized conference on scientific, medical and technological advances in Pittsburgh. Reportedly, Obama asked Copeland for a fist bump — showing off the new sensation of touch in the prosthetic limb, NBC News reported.

“It’s amazing. Pretty cool,” Obama said at the meeting. “I couldn’t be prouder of all of you.”