Australian patient (62) with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the first person to communicate thoughts with others with no muscle activity involved, tweeting last Thursday a message to the world using only direct thought via the Stentrode™ brain computer interface.
Thomas Oxley, the CEO of Synchron, a brain computer interface company that have enabled the ‘feat’, said that by Philip O’Keefe’s tweet read ““Hello World. I created this tweet just by thinking it” and was posted on Synchron’s account.
According to the company, the ‘first direct-thought tweet’ was created wirelessly from the brain of O’Keefe, who had a brain computer interface called ‘Stentrode’ installed last year following progressive paralysis caused by ALS.
To avoid drilling into the skull, the implant that enables him to wirelessly control digital devices through thought was inserted via his jugular vein.
Despite the debilitating paralysis, O’Keefe is now able to engage in independent activities and reconnect with the world and, as the company cited him as saying (thinking), he can email, bank, shop, and message the world via Twitter.\
O’Keefe points that the system – which is astonishing – takes practice as much as like learning to ride a bike but becomes natural once you’re rolling and his goal now is to share his experience of regaining independence and offer inspiration to other people experiencing similar health issues.
Stentrode user friendly system is designed for patients suffering from paralysis caused by multiple conditions and Synchron now plans to further develop its brain computer interface in an in-human study in the United States next year.
The company is also developing the first endovascular implantable neuromodulation therapy and in the clinical stage with a commercially-viable neuroprosthesis for the treatment of paralysis.
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