A new form of interaction allows you to direct the hand movements of others and perceive the world through their touch. But who will use it?
A man who was paralyzed from the chest down following a botched dive has managed to control the hands of two other people with his thoughts, thanks to a brain implant. The feat is described in a pre-publication article posted on medRxivin which Chad Bouton, a neuroscientist expert in brain-computer interfaces at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research (United States), and colleagues talk about how they created “a connection between the mind and body of two different individuals”.
Move and feel with the power of thought
Keith Thomas is a man in his early 40s who has been paralyzed from the chest down since July 2020 and has no ability to move or feel in his hands. In a previous study, in 2023, Bouton’s research team implanted five sets of electrodes into a part of Thomas’ cerebral cortex responsible for sensing touch and moving his right hand.
The implant allowed the neural activity of this brain area to be read, decoded with an AI model and transmitted wirelessly to electrodes placed on the skin of the man’s forearm, which made his muscles contract and relax and move his hand as if the input came directly from the brain.
The patient was thus able for the first time since the accident to grasp objects with his hand, directing the movement solely with his thoughts, and not only that. Thanks to force sensors placed on his hand that sent signals back to his brain, he was back to experiencing something vaguely similar to a rudimentary sense of touch.
A strange form of telepathy
Now, this same system has been exploited to allow Thomas to control other people’s hands. In a first experiment, the man directed the movement of the hand of a woman, not paralyzed but deliberately still, who wore electrodes on the muscles of her forearm and force sensors on a thumb and an index finger.
By imagining opening and closing his own hand, Thomas was able to open and close the woman’s hand, and perceive the tactile sensation of her fingers opening and closing around balls of three different shapes and consistencies, distinguishing them based on their hardness with 64% accuracy. According to scientists, these sensations could be “sharpened” by increasing the number of electrodes in the patient’s cortex.
A rehab buddy
But the most interesting interaction occurred with a woman – Kathy Denapoli – who, due to paralysis, was left with little movement in her fingers.
Thomas guided her with her thoughts, helping her to grab a can and drink from it, a feat that the patient was no longer able to do independently.
The two worked together for months, and the strength of the woman’s grip doubled. Both Thomas and Denapoli benefited from this form of collaboration, which allowed Thomas to help someone and find new goals and Denapoli to make rehabilitation more engaging. Since Denapoli’s paralysis is less serious, a brain implant like Thomas’s would not be justifiable for the woman at the moment.
Less noble uses
Although the idea of cooperating in rehabilitation, and being able to feel the world through another’s body, is fascinating from a medical and research point of view, it raises ethical questions about scenarios currently bordering on science fiction, destined to hinder the clinical approval of this type of interaction. What would happen, for example, if someone exploited the setup described here for malicious purposes – for example, to use another’s hand to harm that person, or to commit a crime?
