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"Can you think in Russian, Mr Gant?"

In 2012, [quadriplegic] Jan Scheuermann volunteered to undergo surgery to have two small probes placed on the surface of her brain — the left motor cortex. Her neurosignals were then picked up, enabling Scheuermann to control a pair of left and right prosthetic arms using only her mind.

“Jan was implanted with small electrode grids containing 96 tiny contact points in the region of her brain that would normally control her right arm and hand movement,” Jared B. Adams, DARPA’s director of media relations, told FoxNews.com. “Each electrode point picked up signals from an individual neuron, which were then relayed to a computer to identify the firing patterns associated with particular observed or imagined movements, such as raising or lowering the arm, or turning the wrist.”

Jan would watch animations and imagine the robotic prosthetic arm’s movements as a team of researchers recorded the signals sent from her brain.

“She thinks [and then] she can shake your hand or offer you a stack of cookies,” Prabhakar told the crowd. “It’s amazing functionality for someone who’s been paralyzed for this time.”

However, it wasn’t long until she set her sights a little higher.

“Jan decided she wanted to try flying a Joint Strike simulator,” Prabhakar said. “So, Jan got to fly in the simulator.”

Most pilots who train in simulators have to use a joystick to control the plane’s movements. Not so with Jan — all she had to do was simply think about piloting the jet and it would move accordingly.