Clinical translation of a high-performance neural prosthesis

Nat Med. 2015 Oct;21(10):1142-5. doi: 10.1038/nm.3953. Epub 2015 Sep 28.

Abstract

Neural prostheses have the potential to improve the quality of life of individuals with paralysis by directly mapping neural activity to limb- and computer-control signals. We translated a neural prosthetic system previously developed in animal model studies for use by two individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis who had intracortical microelectrode arrays placed in motor cortex. Measured more than 1 year after implant, the neural cursor-control system showed the highest published performance achieved by a person to date, more than double that of previous pilot clinical trial participants.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Microelectrodes
  • Neural Prostheses*
  • Paralysis / therapy*
  • Quality of Life
  • Translational Research, Biomedical*