A brain-to-computer technology that can translate thoughts into leg movements has enabled a man paralysed from the waist down by a spinal cord injury to become the first such patient to walk without the use of robotics, doctors in Southern California reported.
The slow, halting first steps of the 28-year-old paraplegic were documented in a preliminary study published on Wednesday in the British-based Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, along with a YouTube video.
The feat was accomplished using a system allowing the brain to bypass the injured spinal cord and instead send messages through a computer algorithm to electrodes placed around the patient’s knees to trigger controlled leg muscle movements.
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, say the outcome marks a promising but incremental achievement in the development of brain-computer interfaces that may one day help stroke and spinal injury victims regain some mobility.
Dr An Do, a study co-author, said clinical applications were many years away. Results of the UC Irvine research still need to be replicated in other patients and greatly refined.