Eric Sorto was 21 years old when he became paralyzed from the neck down due to a gunshot. Two years back, he has undergone a groundbreaking experimental brain surgery at the Keck Medicine of USC.

In the surgery, brain electrodes developed at Caltech were implanted in this Southern Californian man at the Keck Medicine of USC. These electrodes have been helping Sorto to control a robotic arm just from his thoughts.

For the first time in 13 years, Sorto had beverage without have someone else holding it for him. Brain Surgeon Charles Liu placed two neural prosthetics into Eric’s brain. Liu was of the view that Eric was a part of this experiment.

After the surgery, Sorto is now able to carry out activities on its own like hand-shaking, having something to drink and play ‘rock, paper and scissor’ with his robotic arm. The experiment was carried out by placing two micro-electrodes arrays in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC). This part of the brain is responsible for movements like reach and hold.

“When you move your arm, you really don’t think about which muscles to activate and the details of the movement — such as lift the arm, extend the arm, grasp the cup, close the hand around the cup, and so on”, said study’s lead researcher Richard Andersen, professor of neuroscience at Caltech.

In fact, only thought in the mind is the goal of the movement like picking up glass of water. In the trial, the researchers were able to decode the actual intentions, as they asked the subject to imagine the movement.

It resulted into a more fluid movement. Since the time of implantation, Sorto has been learning to control his robotic arm that is not joined with his body.