McGuire VA Medical Center Develops Artificial Limb with Computer Interface to Brain

http://ideastations.org/radio/news/mcguire-va-medical-center-develops-artificial-limb-computer-interface-brain

RP Members and Connections with all the bad press about the VA there are some very dedicated individuals doing great things. This is a Good News Story about the VA!

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Doctors and Researcher at McGuire VA Medical Center have just developed a revolutionary prosthesis that takes commands directly from the brain. “Yeah, we have a small electric motor here…(snap)…when the impulse goes from his brain and into the computer and comes back to here, it activates the switches,” said John Fox, Chief of the Orthotic and Prosthetic Lab and the one who collaborated with Dr. Douglas Murphy, to build an artificial leg that literally “reads your mind.”

William Gadsby has the first one. He lost his leg in Iraq. “I was on foot patrol and the IED exploded and severed the arteries in my right leg, and then I was shot by a sniper in my left leg,” said Gadsby.

He says he owes his life to a corpsman who pulled him out. He lost a leg, and was fitted with a conventional prosthesis, but had to think about every stop he took. “I would say it is pretty tiring having to be conscious of everything you are doing, you know, walking, because it is just something you do all day everyday, so every step you are taking you are thinking in the back of your mind ‘oh, wow, I gotta move now…(laughs),” said Gadsby.

We talked with William by phone at a VA clinic in California where he now works.

But before that, he was here, where he volunteered for an ambitious project at McGuire to build the first artificial leg with a Brain Computer Interface that literally thinks for you. “There is a lot of talk about brain-computer interface, but there are not many centers in the country that are actually doing it,” says Gadsby.

Dr. Douglas Murphy was the project manager, which was funded by $1 million dollars from the National Science Foundation. Unlike experiments at John Hopkins and MIT, this pilot project deals with lower extremity amputees, and non-invasive techniques. “We use seven different electrodes, and these will pick up the electrical activity or the brainwaves from the motor cortex,” said Murphy.

These are surface, they are not implanted? “Right, these are surface. These are a lot more difficult to do than the chip in the brain, but it is a lot more user friendly. There is no surgery involved…you just put the electrodes on top of somebody’s scalp, and then use it from there,” said Murphy.

John Fox, Chief of Orthotic and Prosthetic lab, was given the job of building a prototype that worked. “As you and I walk, we don’t think about walking, we just walk. An amputee has to think about every step he takes,” said Fox.

Literally step by step Fox, Murphy and William Gadsby developed the first artificial leg that operates by brain waves. “It was one of the most amazing things when we first put it on and he was sitting in a chair, and the knee was locked straight out. And he thought about unlocking the knee and everything kicked into the place, the electric motor started and the knee dropped back. It’s kind of amazing to me, and I have been doing it for quite a while,” says Fox.

There are about one million amputees in America, many veterans, and many others who may one day use a device like the one William Gadsby has. He says it changed his life. “Now it’s beamed back automatically and psychologically, it is a huge booster because it makes you feel whole again, it makes you feel organic again,” said Gadsby.

“The whole idea is to allow amputees to approach as closely as possible the abilities they had prior to their amputation.” And like someone learning to play the guitar, the brain first tells the fingers what to do. With this BCI, after a bit of practice, it becomes automatic. Gadsby said, “Jimi Hendrix did it subconsciously, he was just able to do it (laughs). It is just one more thing that is reverting back to the way it was before I was wounded. Takes away kind of the dynamic of being crippled, or, yeah, not 100% organic.”



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