Researchers at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research have restored hand movement and a sense of touch to a man paralysed from the chest down, publishing their results in Nature Medicine. The system, called a double neural bypass, combines a brain-computer interface, AI, and electrical stimulation of the spinal cord and brain. The team says the gains held more than two years after stimulation stopped, suggesting the nervous system itself was partly rewired.<\/p>\n
The participant, Keith Thomas, broke his neck in a 2020 diving accident and had complete tetraplegia, unable to lift his hands to his face. He enrolled in the three-year clinical trial 13 months after the injury. After training, Thomas could feed himself and drink from a cup using his own hand. Over 35 weeks, his right arm grew 86% stronger and his left 62% stronger, according to the researchers.<\/p>\n
He was also able to scratch his nose and wipe his mouth without help. A separate technique called cortical mirroring targeted sensation. After about 25 weeks, Thomas regained feeling in a wrist that had been numb since his injury.<\/p>\n
Surgeons implanted five microelectrode arrays in Thomas’s brain during a 15-hour operation. AI decodes his movement intentions and stimulates his forearm muscles, allowing his own hand to move. Sensors embedded in a 3D-printed brace then trigger stimulation of the sensory cortex, producing the feeling of touch. The decoder maintained up to 84.6% accuracy over five months without retraining.<\/p>\n
In a demonstration of fine motor control, Thomas could lift empty eggshells without breaking them 87% of the time, even while holding a conversation.<\/p>\n
Many of the gains persisted after the stimulation was turned off. On a recent follow-up, the improvements were still present more than two years later, which the team interprets as evidence of neuroplasticity rather than a temporary assistive effect.<\/p>\n
Chad Bouton, the study’s corresponding author, said in a statement: “We’re not just bypassing the injury; we’re actually rewiring the nervous system.” Thomas described the personal impact to The Guardian: “Being able to feel my sister’s hand, to pet my dog and feel her fur, these experiences that the injury took away have been restored.”<\/p>\n
The work joins a fast-moving field of brain-computer interfaces. Other groups have used implants to restore speech, while others pursue wearable or non-invasive approaches, and regulators in China have cleared the country’s first commercial brain implant.<\/p>\n
About 15 million people live with spinal cord injury worldwide, and most people with tetraplegia rank hand function as their top priority, the team noted. The researchers plan larger trials and are testing the system for other conditions, including stroke. The Feinstein Institutes are the research arm of Northwell Health.<\/p>\n
The double neural bypass is a system from the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research that combines a brain-computer interface, AI, and electrical stimulation of the spinal cord and brain to restore movement and touch in a person with paralysis.<\/p>\n
Many of the participant’s gains were still present more than two years after the stimulation stopped, which the researchers say points to neuroplasticity, or real rewiring of the nervous system.<\/p>\n
The study was led by Chad Bouton at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, the research arm of Northwell Health, and was published in Nature Medicine.<\/p>\n