By now, you should know this is one of my favorite subjects.
Well, this isn’t ready to be tested on human subjects yet, but it is one of the “Grails” Neuroscience has been striving towards for many years.
“Scientists at Northwestern University in Chicago, with funding from the National Institutes of Health, have successfully bypassed the spinal cord and restored fine motor control to paralyzed limbs using a brain-computer interface.” – Sebastian Anthony (Extremetech)
This was done by combining a BCI (Brain-Computer Interface) directly wired into the brain and a functional electrical stimulator (FES) wired into the the muscles of the subject’s arm.
Thus the flow becomes Brain (thought), BCI, FES, muscles, action.
The fine motor control in the monkey's hand is the thing to notice in this video:
This development makes me so happy for people with spinal cord injuries and peripheral nerve injuries.
So much has been done so quickly. Imagine what could be achieved if only governments and people would give up violence.
Source:
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/126773-researchers-create-brain-computer-interface-that-bypasses-spinal-cord-injury-paralysis