Episode 5: Brain-Computer Interface. A conversation with Dr. Jaimie Henderson

Dr. Maxwell Boakye
August 1, 2021

Prosthetics are used to help patients recover the normal function of their limbs after injury. What if we applied the same principle to our brains? That’s exactly the kind of research Dr. Jaimie Henderson is doing at Stanford University. Alongside his brilliant team, Dr. Henderson is using Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology to help patients who have suffered spinal cord injuries regain the ability to communicate. What’s even more fascinating is that their findings are turning what we know about neuroscience upside down! This is a can’t miss conversation with one of the world’s leading researchers in neural prosthetics.

You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in…

The details of Dr. Henderson’s clinical practice [2:33]
What is brain computer interface (BCI) technology [3:31]
How Dr. Henderson got involved in neural prosthetic research [4:39]
What is BrainGate? [8:04]
Using BCI to help patients with spinal injuries communicate [10:22]
Other projects Dr. Henderson and his team are working on [17:00]
Dr. Henderson’s insights after over a decade in the neuroscientific field [19:26]
The logistics and risks of neural prosthetic research [21:08]
The fundamental breakthrough that enabled the field of neural prosthetics to move forward [25:23]
Getting life-changing medical technology from the lab to the clinic [27:38]
Dr. Henderson’s advice for those looking to pursue a similar field of research [29:23]

Making a difference one letter at a time

One of the most difficult spinal injuries for a patient to endure is one that limits or prevents communication. I echo Dr. Henderson’s desire to be able to wave a magic wand and promise every patient the return of full functionality after an injury. Sadly, such a wand does not exist and it’s up to bold researchers like Dr. Henderson to increase the quality of life for patients through innovative technologies. His work with brain-computer interfaces has allowed participants in the BrainGate trial to imagine themselves handwriting text while a neural network simultaneously predicts the letters on a screen with 90% accuracy. That’s incredible! Listen to our whole conversation to learn how the science behind BCI works.

Dr. Henderson’s research is changing how we understand neuroscience

Our typical understanding of how the brain works is through a topographic representation of different body parts and their correspondents along the precentral gyrus of the frontal lobe called the motor homunculus. Essentially, it’s an orderly progression as you move laterally down the motor strip. But Dr. Henderson’s research challenges that understanding by showing that it’s actually a very intermixed and non-somatotopic representation that has nearly every body part represented in one small area of the motor cortex. This means that activity scanned from this part of the brain can be used in numerous applications from exoskeletons to speech therapy. Listen to our whole conversation to hear Dr. Henderson unpack what this discovery means for the neuroscientific world.

The future of BCI is bright

For many promising laboratory technologies, the biggest hurdle to clinical use is getting FDA approval. Corporate involvement is often needed to provide the time, money, and resources required to get life-changing medical tech into the hands of those that would benefit from it the most. Luckily, BCI is a technology that has gained a ton of traction with companies over the last few years. The biggest example would be Elon Musk and his company Neuralink whose research has greatly advanced the field of neural prosthetics. Because of BCI’s popularity in the corporate world, Dr. Henderson predicts that these technologies will be readily available for patients in the next five to ten years.