- You and I take this for granted—
that we feel the world around us.
We feel the wind in our face and hair—
motor function—
walking, running, grabbing, doing things, speaking.
Just imagine
this is taken away from you from the neck down,
or sometimes worse.
- Paralysis used to mean forever.
But what if this brain implant could reverse it?
- As long as you can interface with a brain,
you can enable a patient that has lost function
to regain pretty much everything that
he or she has had.
- 'It's one of several massive leaps
in brain science technology.'
- 'A monkey playing pong using only its mind.'
- 'He is feeling me touching this robotic arm.'
- Long considered the realm of science fiction,
brain-computer interface technology is now a reality.
And for people who have lost function,
it's changing their lives.
- After my injury, I tried everything I could
to not let the injury define my life.
I look back on 12 years ago when I had
my spinal cord injury,
and there's so much more hope now.
- We're not gonna screw this up,
and we'll help as many people as we can.
- This special episode of "Just Might Work,"
is presented by Blackrock Neurotech.
- How does it feel
to be sort of at this moment now?
- Um, I can't believe it's happening.
- As we find more ways
to integrate our bodies with technology,
there's one application that has kind of represented
the final frontier:
our brain.
- The brain is really the part of our body
that controls everything that is going on.
What you do, what you want to do, what you don't want to do,
perceiving the world around you—
all of that happens in the brain.
- For some people with paralysis,
ALS, neurodegenerative disorders, or other disabilities,
the connection between the brain and the body is broken,
and that's where brain-computer interface,
or BCI technology, comes in:
to reestablish the connection
between thoughts and motor functions
so that people can move or feel again.
- Middle.
Pinky.
- There we go.
- All of this started almost 30 years ago.
As a teenager, I was working with disabled children
at that time, and realized that it was extremely frustrating
that we were not really offering any great solutions.
- I met Florian in high school,
and it was the kind of high school
where people asked each other
what they wanted to do later in life.
Frankly, I didn't have a clue, but when I asked Florian,
he said he wanted to create the link
between artificial and bionic limb.
- Florian and Marcus eventually came together
to start Blackrock Neurotech.
It has become the world's leading
brain-computer interface company,
producing the majority of BCI implants
that are or have been in patients, ever.
The mechanism that underpins the work
is pretty wild.
A chip like this is implanted into the motor cortex.
As a user thinks of an action, like moving their hand,
a computer decodes and analyzes those brain signals
through an algorithm.
Then, that digital command is transmitted
to external devices,
or in some cases,
stimulates muscles or nerves
to allow patients to move their own arms and hands.
It can even translate thoughts to type a message
or use a cursor.
And if that's not enough,
it can also translate sensations back from
a prosthetic so the user can actually feel again.
- Essentially, giving some of those capabilities back.
The excitement, the fire, the hope that this is instilling,
is very inspiring.
- This is exactly what happened
with Ian Burkhart.
You may remember Ian from our series, "Superhuman."
After a tragic diving accident,
Ian was left unable to move most of his body,
but one of Blackrock's brain implants
connected to electrodes on his arm,
restored his ability to move his hand.
- Understanding and coming to terms with the fact
that I have a disability has been a process.
I needed help with everything from getting dressed,
getting up in the morning, going to the bathroom—
but the Neurobridge BCI trial
acted as extra-intensive occupational therapy for me.
I know that it can really benefit other individuals' lives,
and I'm really excited to see it get into the hands
of more and more people.
- But the problem?
This tech is typically limited to small-scale trials,
and patients like Ian could only utilize it in the lab,
not at home where it was needed most.
- All right, see you next week.
Have a good weekend.
- Have a good weekend.
- We've come a long way.
But, up until today,
you could only get access as part
of a multimillion-dollar clinical research study.
That is changing.
- And before that happens,
Blackrock is turning to patients like Ian
to truly understand how this tech could be life-changing
for people with disabilities outside the lab.
- I'm working on some of the engineering design
of the software and the hardware,
as well as creating a coalition for other individuals
like myself to really make sure that they're gonna be
something that will actually be used
by the Disability community.
- Whatever we can do to give someone like Ian
and other BCI pioneers a platform,
because in the end of the day,
when you get that feedback from a patient,
that's very different from asking clinicians,
researchers, or the general public
what that patient population might need.
We're already today talking about a patient population
of 600 million patients that suffer
from neurological disorders.
I think this kind of
technology and neural interface
with various different applications
can and will provide
a life-changing impact
to millions of patients.
- The Disabled community is the launching point,
but next-generation applications could expand
to blindness, depression, and beyond.
- Really what we're trying to do is open it up to others
to build additional tools,
interfaces to enable people to do their jobs.
Novel classes of computer games and entertainment.
Eventually, this may be something
for first responders,
military, or others that may be able-bodied,
but need faster reflexes or support to be safer
in certain environments.
It's endless, the possibilities.
- I've seen the promise that it holds.
I've been able to think about moving my hand again,
and it actually moves.
I thought I would never do that again.
And that hope and possibility really ignites a fire
within myself to stay motivated,
to making these types of products
something that everyone has access to.