New device helps paralyzed monkey walk
Scientists from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology recently discovered that a wireless connection from the brain to the spinal cord in a monkey with one paralyzed leg helped the monkey to eventually regain the ability to walk.
The scientists reported their findings last Wednesday, according to an article in the New York Times.
“In recent years, scientists have achieved brain control of robotic hands in monkeys and humans, helped a paralyzed man regain some use of a hand through a chip implanted in his brain, and used electrical stimulation of nerves to enable paralyzed rats to walk again,” the article reads. “The new system is unusual because it concentrates on the lower body, and allows a monkey — and perhaps in the near future a human — to use a wireless system rather than be tethered to a computer.”
The tool utilizes new developments in brain recording and nerve stimulation. While it’s wireless, it does require a computer to decode and translate brain signals and send them to the spinal cord.
Grégoire Courtine is a specialist in spinal cord repair at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Courtine told the New York Times he hoped the system he and his colleagues developed could be transferred to humans for therapy within the next 10 year.
The therapy would aid in rehabilitation and improve recovery and quality of life for people who have suffered spinal cord injuries due to traumatic brain injury, stroke or various impact injuries.
“But, he emphasized, the goal is better rehabilitation, not a science fiction fix for paralysis. ‘People are not going to walk in the streets with a brain-spine interface,’ in the foreseeable future, he said,” the article reads. “Andrew Jackson, at Newcastle University, who has worked on upper body paralysis and was not involved in the study, said the research was ‘another key milestone’ in research on treating paralysis.”
The research was conducted with collaborators in China because Swiss restrictions on animal experiments at the time would not allow the work, according to the article. “Now that the work is proving successful, he has permission to proceed with similar experiments in Switzerland, he said.”
