Article for bypassing spinal cord after spinal cord injury This article describes a research that allows a man with spinal cord injury (SCI) at the cervical level to move his finger. A chip was used to circumvent the spinal cord and send signals to the finger muscles. 

I am looking for the scientific paper of this study. Does someone know the article they used, or a study that describes a similar research?
The most recent paper that was published is Bouton et al. (2016) in Nature, but is not openly available (though can be accessed via http://sci-hub.cc/ ). The abstract of the paper is as follows:


  Millions of people worldwide suffer from diseases that lead to paralysis through disruption of signal pathways between the brain and the muscles. Neuroprosthetic devices are designed to restore lost function and could be used to form an electronic ‘neural bypass’ to circumvent disconnected pathways in the nervous system. It has previously been shown that intracortically recorded signals can be decoded to extract information related to motion, allowing non-human primates and paralysed humans to control computers and robotic arms through imagined movements1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. In non-human primates, these types of signal have also been used to drive activation of chemically paralysed arm muscles12, 13. Here we show that intracortically recorded signals can be linked in real-time to muscle activation to restore movement in a paralysed human. We used a chronically implanted intracortical microelectrode array to record multiunit activity from the motor cortex in a study participant with quadriplegia from cervical spinal cord injury. We applied machine-learning algorithms to decode the neuronal activity and control activation of the participant’s forearm muscles through a custom-built high-resolution neuromuscular electrical stimulation system. The system provided isolated finger movements and the participant achieved continuous cortical control of six different wrist and hand motions. Furthermore, he was able to use the system to complete functional tasks relevant to daily living. Clinical assessment showed that, when using the system, his motor impairment improved from the fifth to the sixth cervical (C5–C6) to the seventh cervical to first thoracic (C7–T1) level unilaterally, conferring on him the critical abilities to grasp, manipulate, and release objects. This is the first demonstration to our knowledge of successful control of muscle activation using intracortically recorded signals in a paralysed human. These results have significant implications in advancing neuroprosthetic technology for people worldwide living with the effects of paralysis.




Bouton, C. E., Shaikhouni, A., Annetta, N. V., Bockbrader, M. A., Friedenberg, D. A., Nielson, D. M., ... &amp; Morgan, A. G. (2016). Restoring cortical control of functional movement in a human with quadriplegia. Nature, 533(7602), 247-250.

More publications from Chad Bouton can be found on his institution's page: http://www.feinsteininstitute.org/our-researchers/chad-bouton/