The nerve bypass: how to move a paralysed hand IAN BURKHART: When we first hooked everything up, for the first time of being able to move my hand, it was a big shock because it was something I hadn't moved in about three and a half years by that point. And now it's just something that's so fluid, it's kind of like it was before I had my injury where I'd just think about what I want to do and now I can do it. CHAD BOUTON: Several years ago Ian had an accident while on a family vacation. He was left quadriplegic from a spinal cord injury. IAN BURKHART: The doctors told me that I had broken my neck. I had a spinal cord injury of the C5 level and most likely I'd be able to move my shoulders around but nothing else, for the rest of my life. CHAD BOUTON: With this injury, signals from his brain in the motor-cortex area - the area responsible for movement - are intact, but the signals arrive at the injury in the spinal cord and they're completely blocked, and can't get to his muscles so he can't actually do movements. So one of the things we've been working on is deciphering the signals in the brain that are specifically associated with hand movement. We placed a tiny implant into the motor area of the brain and we have a connecter secured to the skull and this is kind of our window into Ian's neural activity. Now, once the system is connected, we show specific images of different types of hand movements and we record the signals specifically from the brain that are associated with those movements, and we learn how to actually decipher those signals. IAN BURKHART: So if I think about opening my hand, over and over again, they can see what's lighting up, and then they know that that's me thinking about opening my hand. CHAD BOUTON: Not only is the patient relearning how to think about movements that they haven't done in some cases for several years, but also the algorithm - or the computer software - is adapting and learning as well. And then that computer system is connected to another device that provides signals for the muscles in the forearm that drive hand and finger movements. Without the use of the system and the technology, Ian is not able to grasp objects. But once we connect the system and turn it on, Ian is actually able to open and close his hand. He is also able to pick up objects such as a bottle. And then he's able to switch to a fine pinch grasp, just by thinking about it. And he can pick up smaller objects. This is the first time a completely paralysed person has regained movement just by using their own thoughts. We're in the early stages of development in the lab only, but we hope that one day we can take this technology to the point where it helps people not only with spinal cord injury, but also folks that have experienced a stroke, or even a traumatic brain injury. IAN BURKHART: If all the work we're doing can help anybody get more independence back, then that's great. I really cherish the independence I had before my injury. So if you can give someone that ability back, it's huge.