Who would have thought that a paralized man from the neck down could play ping pong, open emails, control what he wants to watch on t.v and even move objects with the power of thought? A bit far fetched? 
Well that's what 25-year-old American patient, Matthew Nagle and scientists at New England hospitale have achieved. Nagle had a computer-linked implant placed in his brain that enables him to operate devices just by thinking about them. 
This is the biggest step taken towards developing "bionic" systems that can restore motor function in people who have lost control of their limbs in Nagle's case he has to use a robotic arm. Mr Nagle's spinal cord was severed in 2001 and he received his implant at Rhode Island hospital in 2004. The implant is known as the 'Braingate Neural Interface System' and it consists of an array of electrodes that record neural activity from the motor cortex of the brain. Signals from the implant are decoded and processed by a computer, allowing them to be translated into movement commands.
First nagle learned to move a computer cursor by focusing his thoughts on a task.