Scientists have been working on ways to decode brain activity for decades. Teams have developed brain implants that can be used to control robotic limbs and computers, and even to “speak.”
The people who volunteer for trials of those devices play a vital role in that research, and they ought to be recognized for their contributions, says Ian Burkhart, who had one implanted in his own brain back in 2014. He’s been working on a set of guidelines for researchers developing brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).
Ethics guidelines for clinical trials already exist. But BCI trials are different, says Jennifer Chandler, a professor of law and neuroethics at the University of Ottawa who also worked on the guidelines. “These are people who have a device embedded in their brain, are in trials sometimes for years and years … [and contribute] a significant investment of time, of the body, and of intellectual effort.”
Burkhart was left paralyzed from the chest down following a diving accident in 2010, when he was 19 years old. Around four years later, he volunteered to become the first person to trial a brain implant designed for hand control.
He had an array of 96 electrodes inserted into the part of his brain that controls movement.
