Brain stimulation gives lasting paralysed hand recovery
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- Keith Thomas, 48, was paralysed from the chest down in a July 2020 diving accident and regained movement and feeling in his hands after a 2023 double neural bypass procedure at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in New York.
- Chad Bouton and colleagues placed five electrodes in Thomas' brain regions tied to arm movement and feeling, wiring AI-decoded movement intentions to electronic splints on his arms, with 3D-printed force sensors sending pressure feedback to his sensory cortex.
- A building fire forced the team to halt stimulation for about three months — far longer than the planned one-month test pause — yet Thomas kept his strength and sensation and gained more accurate individual finger control with the system fully off.
- Researchers have measured stronger neural responses in Thomas' sensory cortex since the intervention, and Bouton said the persistence of gains after months of being unplugged is "unheard of."
- Daniel Lu at UCLA said the device may be helping the nervous system reorganise itself through neuroplasticity — strengthening spared pathways or recruiting alternative circuits after spinal cord injury rather than merely restoring function while powered.
- Charles Greenspon at the University of Chicago cautioned the findings are from a single case report and need replication, noting that across spinal-cord-injury patients some respond well to stimulation, others not at all, and "we have no idea why."
- The study is published in Nature Medicine (DOI: 10.1038/s41591-026-04498-0).
Why it matters: If the gains are driven by neuroplasticity rather than the device's real-time stimulation, the treatment paradigm shifts from a permanent assistive implant to a rehabilitative intervention that could eventually be turned off — but with only one patient so far, it is not yet clear which paralysed individuals would respond.
