Keith Thomas of Massapequa, New York, experienced a spinal cord injury six years ago during a swimming accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down. He enrolled in a clinical trial of a brain-computer interface technology in October 2021, approximately one year after his injury. The implant, developed by researchers at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research under the direction of Prof Chad Bouton, works by detecting neural signals in Thomas’s brain that indicate his intention to move his arms.
The system translates these signals directly to Thomas’s limbs, allowing movement, while simultaneously processing sensory feedback from pressure sensors embedded in his hands and fingers. This feedback is transmitted back to his brain to recreate the sensation of touch, effectively creating a complete circuit that bypasses the damaged spinal cord. After 35 weeks of training with the technology, Thomas demonstrated significant improvements in strength and motor control, with his right arm gaining 86% strength and his left arm gaining 62%. He progressed from being unable to lift his hands to his face to independently performing tasks such as scratching his nose and wiping his face.
Researchers employed a technique called cortical mirroring to further enhance Thomas’s sense of touch. This method involved recording his brain activity during imagined sensations and then stimulating his sensory brain regions with matching patterns while simultaneously stimulating his skin and spinal cord. Following 25 weeks of this targeted therapy, Thomas recovered the sensation of touch in an area of his wrist that had been numb since the original accident.
A notable finding is that many of these functional gains and sensory improvements have persisted even when the implant system is switched off, suggesting the technology may have contributed to rewiring aspects of Thomas’s nervous system. Follow-up assessments conducted more than two years after the initial gains confirmed their durability. Researchers have published their findings in Nature Medicine and emphasize that larger trials involving additional patients with varying types of spinal cord injuries are necessary to determine the full potential and generalizability of this approach.
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