Matthew Nagle (October 16, 1979 – July 24, 2007) was the first person to use a

brain–computer interface A brain–computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a brain–machine interface (BMI), is a direct communication link between the brain's electrical activity and an external device, most commonly a computer or robotic limb. BCIs are often dire ...

to restore functionality lost due to

paralysis Paralysis (: paralyses; also known as plegia) is a loss of Motor skill, motor function in one or more Skeletal muscle, muscles. Paralysis can also be accompanied by a loss of feeling (sensory loss) in the affected area if there is sensory d ...

. He was a C3 tetraplegic, paralyzed from the neck down after being stabbed.

Biography

Nagle attended Weymouth High School (Class of 1998). He was an exceptional athlete and a star football player. In 2001, he sustained a stabbing injury while leaving the town's annual fireworks show near Wessagussett Beach on July 3. He was stabbed and his

spinal cord The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue that extends from the medulla oblongata in the lower brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone) of vertebrate animals. The center of the spinal c ...

severed when he stepped in to help a friend. Nagle died on July 24, 2007, in

Stoughton, Massachusetts Stoughton (official name: Town of Stoughton) is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 29,281 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The town is located approximately from Boston, from Providence, Rh ...

, from

sepsis Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage of sepsis is followed by suppression of the immune system. Common signs and s ...

BrainGate Clinical Trial

Nagle agreed to participate in a clinical trial involving the BrainGate Neural Interface System (developed by

Cyberkinetics Cyberkinetics is an American company with roots tied to the University of Utah. It was co-founded by John Donoghue, Mijail Serruya, Gerhard Friehs of Brown University, and Nicho Hatsopoulos of the University of Chicago The University o ...

) out of a desire to again be healthy and lead a normal life, and in hopes that modern medical discoveries could help him. He also hoped that his participation in this Clinical Trial would help improve the lives of people who, like him, suffered injuries or diseases that cause severe motor disabilities. The device was implanted on June 22, 2004, by neurosurgeon Gerhard Friehs. A 96-

electrode An electrode is an electrical conductor used to make contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit (e.g. a semiconductor, an electrolyte, a vacuum or a gas). In electrochemical cells, electrodes are essential parts that can consist of a varie ...

" Utah Array" was placed on the surface of his

brain The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...

over the region of

motor cortex The motor cortex is the region of the cerebral cortex involved in the planning, motor control, control, and execution of voluntary movements. The motor cortex is an area of the frontal lobe located in the posterior precentral gyrus immediately ...

that controlled his dominant left hand and arm. A link connected it to the outside of his skull, where it could be connected to a computer. The computer was then trained to recognize Nagle's thought patterns and associate them with movements he was trying to achieve. While he was implanted, Matt could control a computer "mouse" cursor, using it then to press buttons that can control TV, check e-mail, and do basically everything that can be done by pressing buttons. He could draw (although the cursor control is not precise) on the screen. He could also send commands to an external

prosthetic In medicine, a prosthesis (: prostheses; from ), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through physical trauma, disease, or a condition present at birth (Congenital, congenital disord ...

hand (close and open). The results of the study are published in the journal ''Nature''. Per

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...

(FDA) regulations and the study protocol, the BrainGate device was removed from him after approximately one year.

Charges against assailant

On June 5, 2008, a grand jury in

Norfolk County, Massachusetts Norfolk County ( ) is located in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. At the 2020 census, the population was around 725,981. Its county seat is Dedham. The county was named after the English county of the same name. Two towns, Cohasset and B ...

, indicted on a second-degree murder charge Nagle's attacker Nicholas Cirignano. Cirignano had in 2005 been convicted of Nagle's stabbing and sentenced to nine years' imprisonment. District Attorney William Keating used the state medical examiner's ruling that the stabbing had caused Nagle's eventual death as grounds to seek the murder charge. On April 10, 2009, a Superior Court Judge ruled that Cirignano could not be tried for murder, as the jury's verdict from the original assault case had already determined that one of the key components to a murder charge, malice, was negated by excessive force in self-defence. However, the lesser charge of

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...

could still, in theory, be applied.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nagle, Matt Nagle, Matthew 1979 births 2007 deaths American murder victims People murdered in Massachusetts People from Stoughton, Massachusetts Deaths by stabbing in Massachusetts Deaths from sepsis in the United States Infectious disease deaths in Massachusetts