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A First: Paralyzed Man Regains Sense of Touch through Brain-Machine Interface

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, funded by DARPA, have demonstrated for the first time in a human a technology that allows an individual to experience the sensation of touch directly in the brain through a neural interface system connected to a robotic arm. Nathan Copeland, the volunteer for the study, has lived with quadriplegia from the upper chest down since a 2004 car accident. Nearly ten years after the accident, Nathan underwent surgery to have four microelectrode arrays placed in his brain, two in the motor cortex, and two in the sensory cortex regions that correspond to feeling in his fingers and palm. The researchers ran wires from those arrays to a robotic arm developed by the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) at Johns Hopkins University. The APL arm contains torque sensors that detect when pressure is being applied to any of its fingers, and can convert those physical 'sensations' into electrical signals that the wires carry back to the arrays in Nathan's brain to provide precise patterns of stimulation to his sensory neurons. In the first set of tests, in which researchers gently touched each of the robotic fingers while Nathan was blindfolded, he was able to report with nearly 100 percent accuracy which finger was being touched.

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    Transcript

    00:00:03 I'm Justin Sanchez director of darpa's biological Technologies office today I'm really excited to share with you new results on how we are working to directly interface machines with the human brain a DARPA funded research team led by the University of Pittsburgh has demonstrated for the first time ever in humans the experience of the sensation of touch through a robotic prosthetic

    00:00:26 arm connected directly to the brain the volunteer whose name is Nathan underwent a surgery to have two microelectrode arrays placed in his sensory cortex this is a region of the brain responsible for identifying tactile Sensations such as pressure those electrodes were then connected by wires to a robotic hand and arm fitted with tactile sensors in its

    00:00:54 fingers index ring what you're seeing as the trials take place is that as the researcher applies light pressure to the robotic fingers those physical Sensations are converted into electrical signals that are fed directly back into Nathan's brain through this brain machine interface electrical signals are delivered as precise stimulation that

    00:01:19 his brain interprets as though his own fingers are being touched index index ring despite being blindfolded Nathan can identify with nearly 100% accuracy pinky which fingers on the robotic hand are being touched 20 out of 20 what does this mean for the future of neurotechnology DARPA has previously shown that a brain interface can be used

    00:01:48 to direct the movements of a robotic arm now with this new development of adding sensation by directly sending signals from the robotic hand back into the brain we have closed the loop between human and machine at DARPA we are always pushing the boundaries on what is possible we view neurotechnology as one of the next great Frontiers enabling new ways for humans to interact with each

    00:02:12 other and with the world