(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
New technology out of the United States has allowed a paralysed man to smoothly move a prosthetic limb using his thoughts.
Kristina Kukolja has more about a groundbreaking development that's truly testing the power of the mind, and pushing the boundaries of science.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
Over a decade ago, wounded in a shooting, Erik Sorto was left paralysed from the neck down.
Now, as the first trial patient in a program at the University of Southern California, the 34-year-old is, for the first time since then, able to control an arm -- albeit a prosthetic one.
"So, some activities take more concentration than others. Some we found out that having small conversations helps the activity move along smoother. Some, I got to be quiet and if I get frustrated everything just goes downhill, the activity won't work at all," says Erik Sorto.
In the lab, he's picking up his own beer.
"I identify what task we are going to perform, I recall what worked last time, what didn't work last time and then I start thinking about the robot arm, I close my eyes just like this and I start imagining the robotic arm and what I want it to do."
Surgeons have placed a pair of small electrodes into a part of Erik's brain that controls his intentions to move objects.
The electrodes are connected to computers which process Erik's brain signals, and allow him to control a robotic arm placed on a nearby table.
Neurosurgeon Charles Y. Liu performed the surgery.
"Now we have an entirely new area in the brain that can potentially be very useful to achieve the kind of direct brain-machine interface control that opens up an entire new direction in development of technologies, transformative technologies that are designed to give patients who have suffered neurological injuries the capacity to become more independent than they are now."
In another world first, prosthetics developers are exploring how brain function can be harnessed to help restore movement in amputees.
Icelandic company Ossur has begun integrating sensors made in the United States into its own lower limb prosthetics.
Surgically implanted, the tiny sensors pick up electrical signals generated in the remaining part of the amputated leg, to control the prosthetic without the need for conscious thought.
It has given patient Gummi Olafsson a new lease on life.
"Every day if you are using it, you're always getting more and more control over what you're doing with your foot, so in a way, every day you're learning more about how to walk properly with the foot, how to use it to go downhill, uphill, downstairs, upstairs, even sitting down and standing up from a chair."
Orthopaedic surgeon and director of Research and Development at Ossur, Thorvaldur Ingvarsson, says there are plans to expand the initiative beyond Mr Olafsson and one other patient.
"Our ultimate goal is to replace the function of the lost limb. The next step might be to get sensing from the environment so you have a feedback loop."
The science is moving at a fast pace.
Erik Sorto says, so are the hopes of many more.
"It's basically given me so much hope and so much happiness just to see, to be a part of this program and to see there's some kind of hope for us with such a high spinal cord injury. I can someday see this helping so many people."
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