A technology once confined to laboratories is moving rapidly into Chinese hospitals, promising to reshape rehabilitation and treatment for neurological disorders.
Photo by Kuang Da
by LIU Sunan
At Shanghai Huashan Hospital, a coin-sized implant enabled a man paralysed for 12 years to control a computer cursor by thought. The procedure marked a milestone in China's first prospective clinical trial of a wireless invasive brain-computer interface (BCI).
"This was a minimally invasive operation," said Lu Junfeng, chief surgeon at Huashan Hospital. The patient remains stable and is undergoing training.
Across China, hospitals are piloting BCIs for epilepsy, paralysis, speech decoding, autism and stroke recovery. Three months earlier, a team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Huashan Hospital implanted the device, threading ultrathin electrodes into the motor cortex. At Beijing's Xuanwu Hospital, reactive neurostimulation almost eliminated seizures in a teenage girl. Tsinghua University and Xuanwu performed what they called the world's first semi-invasive BCI surgery, enabling a paralysed man to control a robotic arm. At Huashan, flexible electrodes achieved over 70 per cent accuracy decoding Chinese syllables.
According to the China Industry Research Institute, domestic shipments reached 32,000 units in 2024, more than triple the year before. The medical rehabilitation market could grow to 32 billion yuan by 2030.
Despite progress, scaling up remains challenging. Technical risks, inconsistent standards, high costs and regulatory uncertainty continue to hinder adoption. Neuralink's setbacks with detached electrodes underscore these obstacles.
Experts expect BCIs to be used first in rehabilitation before expanding into broader clinical use over the next decade.
