Imma Perfetto
Cosmos science journalist
Advances continue to be made in neurobionics – integrating electronics with the nervous system to repair or replace impaired function – with the latest example helping a tetraplegic person to control a video game with their brain.
A surgically implanted brain-computer interface has allowed the person to play a video game, using only their thoughts to move the fingers of a virtual hand.
According to a new Nature Medicine study, the technology could help address unmet needs for peer support, leisure activities and sporting activities in people living with paralysis.
“Beyond simple grasps, providing reliable individuated finger control would allow activities such as typing, playing a musical instrument or manipulating a digital interface such as a video game controller,” the authors write in the paper.
The interface was implanted in the left precentral gyrus — the brain region responsible for hand movement control — of a 69-year-old man with upper and lower extremity paralysis.
It continuously recorded the electrical activity of multiple neurons as the participant observed a virtual hand performing various movements. The researchers then used machine learning to identify the neuronal signals linked to specific finger movements, allowing the participant to control the movement of 3 finger groups, including 2-dimensional thumb movements, in the virtual hand.
They then programmed certain finger movements to control the speed and direction of a virtual quadcopter in a video game. The system allowed the player to navigate through or around 18 rings in less than 3 minutes, a more than sixfold increase in performance compared to previous research.
“The system was also capable of spontaneous free-form flight through randomly appearing rings,” the authors write.
“The participant’s intuitive control was anecdotally described as being like playing a musical instrument and evoked a strong sense of enablement, recreation and socialisation.”
