An incredible brain device that can translate thoughts into action has been found to be safe in trials

A brain device that translates thoughts into actions and promises new hope for people with severe paralysis, has been found to be safe in trials.

MND patient Phil O'Keefe, 60, is the second person to undergo the brain device implant and is now able to use his thoughts to work a computer. Picture: David Caird

A tiny brain device that gives back the gift of communication to people with severe paralysis has been proven safe and effective in a world-first clinical trial in Melbourne.

The device, the size of a tiny paperclip, is inserted into a blood vessel near the brain where it imprints itself, like a tattoo, to intercept signals from patients allowing them to operate a computer or phone through thought.

A team from the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) and the University of Melbourne created the device called the Stentrode and have just completed a three-year clinical trial to show it can be safely used in humans to translate thought into action.

The research published earlier this month in the journal JAMA Neurology was led by investigators Professor Peter Mitchell, the director of the Neurointervention Service at the RMH and Professor Bruce Campbell, the hospital’s director of Neurology.

Doctors Tom Oxley and Nick Opie are now commercialising the device. Photo: David Caird

Their colleague Associate Professor Tom Oxley first began exploring the idea of the Stentrode device as a University of Melbourne PhD student in 2011. Together with another colleague Associate Professor Nicholas Opie the pair have since founded a company to help commercialise the product.

Professor Mitchell said the device was implanted into four Victorians with advanced motor neurone disease (MND), a rare condition that progressively damages parts of the nervous system and eventually robs of the ability to move.

“I can’t thank the volunteers enough,” Professor Mitchell said. “There is an awful lot that had to happen for this to work. They went in with their eyes wide open and they were participating to help future generations. They recognised it was unlikely to help them because it was a safety study, they didn’t know if it was going to give them any personal benefit.

“But it has. It has worked and to me they are the heroes. An added bonus of this trial was that they enjoyed being part of the process.”

One of the biggest challenges, he said, was developing a technique to navigate the device through the neck up to the top of the head.

“The tricky part was developing a flexible device that could be moved safely through channels to the top of the head carrying an electrode that could then open up and hold in position,” he said.

Professor Mitchell said the trial showed the patients were able to generate electrical signals sent directly to a computer to do hands-free texting, emailing, online banking and shopping, and communicating care needs using their thoughts.

He said the patients who will use the Stentrode in future will be those with MND, but potentially also patients with stroke that effects the brain stem that causes a ‘locked in’ syndrome where the top part of the brain is normal but there is an interruption between the brain and the rest of the body.

“Patients can move their eyes, but they can do little else, these patients may also potentially benefit as would those with high quadriplegia.”

Professor Mitchell said seed funding for the project to develop the device initially came from the National Health and Medical Research Council and also the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the US military.

“This project is something Victoria can be very proud of,” Professor Mitchell said. “It is very much a Victorian story.

“The next step is a larger Australian study at the RMH, but also partnering at hospitals in Sydney and Brisbane in parallel with a safety study in the US.”

Professor Mitchell said the DARPA team is also wanting to understand if it can allow people to restore mobility by controlling their wheelchair with their mind rather than having to rely on other people to do it for them.

“The future is limited only by our imagination. If you have an ability to read or to allow people’s thoughts to generate an electrical signal that they can control, then anything that you can imagine that can be controlled by a computer is possible.”