When a person loses a limb, a prosthesis often can help restore a significant degree of mobility. But when movement or communication is impaired by a neurological condition such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), spinal cord injury or stroke, there are, as of yet, very few options for the affected individual.
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 on creating brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies. BCIs, as their name implies, are systems that link the brain with an external system such as a robotic arm or a computer. They can allow the individual to exert control over devices that could move the arm, or enable computer-generated speech just by thinking about the action, thereby restoring communication, mobility and independence. BCM and Rice will be just the sixth team in the consortium and the first team in Texas.
Over the past two decades, researchers with BrainGate have been at the forefront of developing implantable BCIs, having shown that neural signals associated with the intent to move a limb or speak can be “decoded” by a computer in real-time and used to operate external devices.
Rice and BCM collaborators are expanding these efforts with a focus on decoding cortical neural signals to control robotic assistive devices to help people with tetraplegia (paralysis of all four limbs) eat and drink independently.
Nishal Shah, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and a McNair Scholar at Rice, is leading a team that will be responsible for creating the computational infrastructure that decodes intended movements from neural activity and drives the robotic system.
“My main research focus is building intracortical brain-computer interfaces, a rapidly expanding field, with the goal of helping people who are paralyzed and rely on care partners to restore independence in communication and activities of daily living,” said Shah, who is also a member of Rice’s Ken Kennedy Institute and the Rice Neuroengineering Initiative. “Being able to feed oneself is second nature to people who are able-bodied, but it requires a number of simultaneous, complex, coordinated motor actions to achieve fluid and natural performance.”
Dr. Sameer Sheth, professor of neurosurgery and a McNair Scholar at BCM, is leading the clinical team that is recruiting participants, performing the surgery to place the specialized electrode arrays into the brain surface and providing clinical and participant oversight and care.
“It is a momentous step for Baylor and Rice to join BrainGate and lend our expertise to this consortium’s work,” said Sheth, who is also the Cullen Foundation Endowed Chair of Neurosurgery at BCM and director of the Gordon and Mary Cain Pediatric Neurology Research Laboratories at Texas Children’s Hospital. “The development of an implant capable of controlling a robotic arm holds the power to transform the lives of people living with paralysis, restoring not only movement but also independence and hope.
“A critical component of progress in this field is the development of better and faster computer algorithms to translate the immensely complex brain activity into useful information to drive a robotic arm or control a speech prosthesis in the way the individual intends. I am very excited to work with Dr. Nishal Shah, an expert in computer science and robotics. This collaboration brings together Rice’s computational and engineering strengths with Baylor’s clinical and neuroscience expertise.”
Behnaam Aazhang, Rice’s J.S. Abercrombie Professor, director of the Rice Brain Institute and co-director of the Rice Neuroengineering Initiative (NEI), said Rice NEI “is delighted to be joining our colleagues at BCM in the BrainGate research.”
“BrainGate is an incredible research consortium leading clinical trials focused on BCI technologies,” Aazhang said. “This designation is a huge step for Rice’s newly launched Rice Brain Institute, which coalesces a wide range of cross-disciplinary expertise in engineering, neuroscience, cognitive science, ethics and policy under a shared mission to improve brain health.”
Sheth added that this current clinical trial is just the beginning.
“For people with mental health disorders, what changes in the brain to limit the ability to live independently, both physically and emotionally?” Sheth asked. “A long-term goal is to understand how we can use the knowledge we gain from movement-restoring BCIs to connect that same technology with cognitive, motivational and emotional processes for people who suffer from depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders.”
“We’re excited to learn how these powerful signals from the brain can be understood in relation to mood, memory and cognition, and how our field can harness these signals to help develop technologies for people with a variety of mental health disorders,” said Nicole Provenza, assistant professor of neurosurgery at Baylor, McNair Scholar and principal investigator at Baylor for BrainGate.
This bigger picture underscores how this first group of clinical trial participants are paving the way for these future discoveries to be made.
“Perfecting a neurally controlled robotic arm for independence is the first step,” Shah said. “Those who will take part in this trial are like test pilots of a brand new airplane. Their efforts will help advance technology, science and engineering. They are opening doors and playing an important role in this new field of neuroprostheses.”
Over the years, BrainGate has made immense strides in BCI development. Recent research findings from the consortium include enabling communication for people with paralysis by transforming cortical activity associated with attempted speech into text on a computer screen and even speech that sounds like the user before the onset of paralysis.
“I’m thrilled to welcome the incredible and expert team at Baylor and Rice to the BrainGate consortium,” said Dr. Leigh Hochberg, BrainGate’s principal investigator and researcher with Massachusetts General Hospital, Brown University, Harvard Medical School and VA Providence Healthcare.
Other BrainGate consortium sites include Massachusetts General Hospital,VA Providence Healthcare System, the University of California at Davis, Stanford University and Emory University. To learn more about the BrainGate clinical trial and the initiative’s latest developments, visit https://www.braingate.org/clinical-trials/#.
To be eligible, participants should:
- be over 18
- have paralysis in the arms and the legs or have difficulty speaking.
- have a medical diagnosis such as spinal cord injury, brainstem stroke, ALS or other degenerative motor neuron disorder.
To learn more about participating in the BrainGate2 clinical trial at Baylor College of Medicine, contact BrainGateStudyBCM@bcm.edu.
CAUTION: Investigational Device. Limited by Federal law to investigational use.