Brain Chip Allows Mind Control of Digital Devices

Brain-computer interface (BCI) company Synchron has successfully tested its brain implant on six participants over a 12-month trial period. The device, called the Stentrode BCI, allows the subjects to control digital devices with their minds.  

The Stentrode is implanted in a blood vessel on the surface of the motor cortex of the brain through the jugular vein via a minimally invasive endovascular procedure. 

Once implanted, the device detects and wirelessly transmits motor intent out of the brain. The technology allows severely paralyzed people to control personal devices with hands-free point-and-click.

Synchron recently announced it implanted the device on the brain of a man with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to allow him to control an Amazon Alexa with his mind. 

The BCI allowed the 64-year-old trial participant to select customized tiles on an Amazon Fire tablet to complete pre-programmed actions, including turning on and off lights, making video calls, playing music and shows, controlling smart home devices, reading books on Kindle and shopping on Amazon, all without using his hands or voice.

“The integration with smart technology and my BCI is something I'm really excited about,” said the participant, who asked that his name not be used. “It's hard to imagine living in our modern world without the ability to access or control connected devices like Amazon’s Alexa and Echo products that are so prevalent in my daily life. To be able to manage important aspects of my environment and control access to entertainment gives me back the independence that I’m losing."

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The 12-month Command study, which was presented at the 2024 Congress of Neurological Surgeons in Houston, was conducted at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, the Gates Vascular Institute at the University at Buffalo Neurosurgery and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University College of Engineering and support from the National Institutes of Health BRAIN Initiative.

The study, the first FDA-approved investigational device exemption trial of a permanently implanted BCI, showed that the participants experienced no serious adverse events related to the brain or vasculature during the year of implantation. 

It also demonstrated that brain signals related to motor intent can be consistently captured and transformed into digital motor outputs. All six of the trial participants, who had severe, chronic bilateral upper-limb paralysis, were able to successfully use the device for the entire trial period. 

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“The users were able to generate digital motor outputs (DMOs) with the BCI,” Synchron Founder and CEO Tom Oxley said. “These are simple, thought-derived expressions of intent, converted into digital actions on computers. Making the DMOs easy to use, stable over time and generalizable across technology platforms will unlock layers of independence and autonomy for patients.”