Providing Brain Control of Extracorporeal Devices to Patients With Quadriplegia

This research study is being done to develop a brain controlled medical device, called a
brain-machine interface or BMI, that will provide people with a spinal cord injury some
ability to control an external device such as a computer cursor or robotic limb by using
their thoughts.

Developing a brain-machine interface (BMI) is very difficult and currently only limited
technology exists in this area of neuroscience. The device in this study involves implanting
very fine recording electrodes into areas of the brain that are known to create arm movement
plans and provide hand grasping information. These movement and grasp plans would then
normally be sent to other regions of the brain to execute the actual movements. By tying into
those pathways and sending the movement plan signals to a computer instead, the investigators
can translate the movement plans into actual movements by a computer cursor or robotic limb.

The device being used in this study is called the NeuroPort Array and is surgically implanted
in the brain. This device and the implantation procedure are experimental which means that it
has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). One NeuroPort Array consists
of a small grid of electrodes that will be implanted in brain tissue with a small cable that
runs from the electrode grid to a small hourglass-shaped pedestal. This pedestal is designed
to be attached to the skull and protrude though the scalp to allow for connection with the
computer equipment.

The investigators hope to learn how safe and effective the NeuroPort Array is in controlling
computer generated images and real world objects, such as a robotic arm, using imagined
movements of the arms and hands. To accomplish this goal, two NeuroPort Arrays will be used.