Life / Neuroscience & Psychology

First implanted BCIs

A paralyzed man controlled a computer cursor by thought through an electrode array in his brain.

In June 2004 Matthew Nagle, paralyzed by a spinal injury, received the BrainGate array of about 100 electrodes in his motor cortex; the 2006 Nature paper by Leigh Hochberg and colleagues showed he could move a cursor, open email and operate a robotic hand. The following decade brought robotic-arm control and typing by thought. These early studies established the principle behind today's devices.