Scientists connected the brain of a paralyzed patient to the Nexus tablet

A paralyzed patient with a nervous system affected by Lou Gehrig's disease , was able to communicate with the outside world using the neural interface that connected her brain to the Nexus 9 tablet.

The patient under the code number T6 was helped by scientists from Stanford University. A progress report this week at the annual conference on neuroscience was done by a neuro engineer, Dr. Paul Nuyujukian.

Over the past twenty years, thanks to the development of computers, new devices have appeared that help paralyzed patients communicate with the outside world. In contrast to the already established classical devices that read eye movements, new systems connect the brain with electronics directly. A device the size of a small pill is implanted in the patient's brain, and special algorithms decode brain waves that the device reads from the cortex.
')
Two years ago, patient T6 agreed to take part in an experiment in which a 100-channel array of electrodes was implanted into a part of her brain responsible for motor activity. Then it was only a prototype: the test subject focused on the letters of the on-screen keyboard, and the device and the control algorithm had to interpret brain signals. But the interface of the first device was inconvenient, the process of working with it was slow. In addition, the goal of scientists was to create a wireless interface.

According to the researchers, they suddenly realized that the computer part of the interface already exists - these are tablets with touch screens. And instead of developing their own hardware, they simply bought the latest Nexus 9 tablet on Amazon. The wireless interface was provided with Bluetooth connectivity. As a result, the tablet perceives the patient’s brain implant as a wireless mouse.



Judging from the experience, the brain implant can work without interruption for at least two years. And although the patient is already able to use the browser, go to the AppStore and perform other similar actions, the scientists plan to develop the interface. In the near future - the implementation of "dragging" elements on the screen and the possibility of multitouch.

Lou Gehrig's disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a slowly progressive, incurable degenerative disease of the central nervous system, in which both upper and lower motor neurons are affected, resulting in paralysis and subsequent muscle atrophy. It is with this disease that the famous physicist Stephen Hawking has lived for many years.