People who are paralyzed have been given new hope by stem cell research, championed by the late Christopher Reeve P'02. But researchers in neuroscience are looking at other, less controversial ways of restoring independence to people with disabilities.
The neuroscience approach looks for new ways of allowing signals from the brain to impact the outside world. The most recent advance was made possible by John Donoghue, professor and chair of the Department of Neuroscience.
And right now, Donoghue's research is hot. In the last month, he's been interviewed by the Providence Journal, the Boston Globe, USA Today, Reader's Digest, Wired Magazine and Discover Magazine. He also recently won a 2004 Discover Magazine Innovation Award.
The interest is due to a device called BrainGate that Donoghue helped develop, which allows people who are paralyzed to be more independent. The first human trial of the neuroprosthetic device has allowed a 25-year-old man who is quadriplegic to read e-mail, play video games and change channels on a TV.
Donoghue studies the signals that the brain produces to tell muscles to move. This helps him understand how an intention to move is translated into action. Harnessing this knowledge, he co-founded Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc., the biotechnology company that created the BrainGate device.
The system currently consists of a chip implanted in the patient's brain that is linked by cables to a set of computers on a cart. The device translates the brain's intention to move into a signal that can be read by a computer; the computer then completes that action.
Donoghue said the next advance in the technology will involve miniaturizing the external computers to the size of a Zippo lighter so that all of the processing equipment can be implanted in the patient's chest, much like a pacemaker. This will allow patients to be much more mobile and independent.
For the moment, because the researchers are still improving the system, Donoghue said they "keep all complicated stuff on the outside (of the body) so you can change it." Eventually, he said, the plan is to run a fiber-optic cable underneath the skin from the chip implanted in the patient's brain to the processing device in the chest. The processor will be connected to a wireless network that allows the patient to control his or her environment.
But Donoghue stressed that so far Cyberkinetics has tested the system on only one patient out of the five called for by the current trial. Further trials will be carried out after this one is completed before the technology will be commercially available.
Ultimately, Donoghue said, the aim of his research and the research of many other scientists throughout the country is to make it possible for people who are paralyzed to function normally in everyday life. He expects that research into biopolymer muscles, gene therapies and neuroprostheses will interact with each other to provide new and innovative treatments for various diseases and conditions.
In addition to allowing people with disabilities to lead more independent lives, the BrainGate technology has provided new insights into the way the brain actually works.
"We're recording an ensemble of cells in the cerebral cortex, which is sometimes called the organ of creativity," Donoghue said. Before this technology existed, doctors and scientists relied on MRIs, which chart blood flow to different parts of the brain, to examine brain function.
According to Donoghue, the device has settled a long-standing debate about where thought and movement processing occur in the brain. He said a well-known neurology textbook presents the hypothesis that the primary motor cortex, a region of the brain known to be associated with movement, is stimulated only when actual movement occurs. The BrainGate trial has shown "you don't have to move to get that part of your brain to work," Donoghue said.
