Neural Interface Restores Touch Sensation After Spinal Cord Injury

Columbus, Ohio (May 1, 2020)—A sensorimotor neural interface successfully restored touch sensation in a patient with quadriplegia resulting from spinal cord injury (SCI), researchers report.

“Neurotechnology and brain-computer interfaces are becoming an effective way to leverage residual neural signals for functional benefit following SCI, stroke, and several other dysfunctional states,” Dr. Patrick D. Ganzer of Battelle Memorial Institute, in Columbus, Ohio, told Reuters Health by email.

An estimated 50% of patients with a clinically complete SCI have a “sensory discomplete” SCI, where tactile stimuli that the patients cannot feel nevertheless evoke changes in cortical activity. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) can reanimate paralyzed muscles after SCI, but whether they can restore touch was unknown.

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