Spinal cord injury patients can imagine resuming many activities because of new technologies (washingtonpost)
At age 16, German Aldana snaped his spine just below his neck. For the next five years, he could move only his neck, and his arms a little. Researchers with the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis carefully opened Aldana's skull and, at the surface of the brain, implanted electrodes. Then, in the lab, they trained a computer to interpret the pattern of signals from those electrodes as he imagines opening and closing his hand. The computer then transfers the signal to a prosthetic on Aldana's forearm, which then stimulates the appropriate muscles to cause his hand to close. The entire process takes 400 milliseconds from thought to grasp.