When a person loses a limb, a prosthesis often helps restore a significant degree of mobility. But when neurological conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), spinal cord injury, or stroke impair movement and communication, there are currently few options for those affected.
To address this challenge, Rice University, in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), will join Braingate, a consortium of universities and academic medical centers working to develop brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. A BCI, as the name suggests, is a system that links the brain with external systems such as robotic arms or computers. These allow individuals to control devices that allow them to move their arms or use computer-generated voices just by thinking about their movements, thereby restoring communication, mobility, and independence. BCM and Rice are only the sixth teams in the consortium and the first in Texas.
Over the past two decades, BrainGate researchers have been at the forefront of implantable BCI development, showing that neural signals associated with intentions to move a limb or speak can be “decoded” in real time by a computer and used to manipulate external devices.
Rice and his BCM collaborators are expanding these efforts by focusing on decoding cortical nerve signals to control robotic assistive devices to help patients with quadriplegia (paralysis of all four limbs) eat and drink independently.
Nishal Shah, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and a McNair Scholar at Rice University, leads a team responsible for deciphering intended movements from neural activity and creating the computational infrastructure that powers robotic systems.
“My primary research focus is on building intracortical brain-computer interfaces, a rapidly expanding field, with the goal of helping people with paralysis and dependence on a care partner regain independence in communication and activities of daily living,” said Shah, who is also a member of Rice’s Ken Kennedy Institute and the Rice Neurotechnology Initiative. “For able-bodied individuals, it is natural to be able to feed oneself, but achieving fluid, natural performance requires a large number of simultaneous complex and coordinated motor movements.”
Dr. Sameer Sheth, professor of neurosurgery and McNair Scholar at BCM, is leading the clinical team recruiting participants, performing the surgery to place a specialized electrode array on the surface of the brain, and providing clinical and participant monitoring and care.
“Having Messrs. Baylor and Rice joining BrainGate and contributing our expertise to this consortium’s work is an important step,” said Sheth, the Cullen Foundation Endowed Chair in Neurosurgery at BCM and director of the Gordon and Mary Cain Pediatric Neurological Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital. “The development of an implant that can control a robotic arm has the potential to transform the lives of people living with paralysis, restoring not only movement but also independence and hope.
“A key element of progress in this field is the development of better and faster computer algorithms to convert highly complex brain activity into useful information, such as moving robotic arms or controlling artificial languages in accordance with individual intentions. I am very excited to be working with Dr. Nishal Shah, an expert in computer science and robotics. This collaboration will combine Rice’s computational and engineering strengths with Baylor’s clinical and neuroscience expertise.”
Behnaam Arzan, Rice University J.S. Abercrombie Professor and director of the Rice Brain Institute and co-director of the Rice Neuroengineering Initiative (NEI), said Rice NEI is “delighted to be participating in the BrainGate study with our colleagues at BCM.”
“BrainGate is an exciting research consortium leading clinical trials focused on BCI technology,” said Aazhang. “This designation is a major step for Rice’s newly launched Rice Brain Institute, which brings together broad expertise across the fields of engineering, neuroscience, cognitive science, ethics, and policy in a shared mission to improve brain health.”
Sheth added that this current clinical trial is just the beginning.
“For people with mental disorders, what are the brain changes that limit their ability to live physically and mentally independently?” Sheth asked. “The long-term goal is to understand how we can use the knowledge gained from BCIs to restore movement to connect the same technology to the cognitive, motivational, and emotional processes of people suffering from depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders.”
“We are excited to learn how these powerful signals from the brain are understood in relation to mood, memory, and cognition, and how our field can leverage these signals to help develop technologies for people with a variety of mental health disorders,” said Nicole Provenza, assistant professor of neurosurgery at Baylor University, McNair Scholar, and BrainGate principal investigator.
This overall picture highlights how this first group of clinical trial participants is paving the way for future discoveries.
“The first step is to perfect a neurally controlled robotic arm that can stand on its own,” Shah said. “The people participating in this trial are like test pilots for a brand new airplane. Their efforts help advance technology, science, and engineering. They are opening doors and playing an important role in this new field of neuroprosthetics.”
Over the years, BrainGate has made great strides in BCI development. Recent research results by the consortium include enabling people with paralysis to communicate by converting cortical activity associated with speech attempts into text on a computer screen, and even a voice similar to that of the user before the onset of paralysis.
We are thrilled to welcome the incredible team of experts from Baylor & Rice University to the BrainGate Consortium. ”
Dr. Leigh Hochberg, BrainGate principal investigator and researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brown University, Harvard Medical School, and VA Providence Healthcare
Other BrainGate consortium sites include Massachusetts General Hospital, VA Providence Healthcare System, University of California, Davis, Stanford University, and Emory University. To learn more about the BrainGate clinical trial and the latest developments in this work, please visit https://www.braingate.org/clinical-trials/#.
To be eligible to participate, participants must:
- Be over 18 years old
- You have paralysis in your arms or legs or have difficulty speaking.
- Have a medical diagnosis such as spinal cord injury, brainstem stroke, ALS, or other degenerative motor neuron disorder.
For more information about participating in the BrainGate2 clinical trial at Baylor College of Medicine, please contact us (email protected).
