A man whose legs
had been paralyzed for five years walks along a 12-foot course using
UCI-developed
technology that lets the brain bypass the spinal cord to send messages
to the legs.
Courtesy of UCI's Brain Computer Interface Lab.
Proof-of-concept study shows possibilities for
mind-controlled technology
(September 24, 2015) Novel
brain-computer interface technology created by University of California, Irvine
researchers has allowed a paraplegic man to walk for a short distance.
In the preliminary proof-of-concept study, led by UCI
biomedical engineer Zoran Nenadic and neurologist An Do, a person with complete
paralysis in both legs due to spinal cord injury was able – for the first time
– to take steps without relying on manually controlled robotic limbs.
The male participant, whose legs had been paralyzed for five
years, walked along a 12-foot course using an electroencephalogram-based system
that lets the brain bypass the spinal cord to send messages to the legs. It
takes electrical signals from the subject’s brain, processes them through a
computer algorithm, and fires them off to electrodes placed around the knees
that trigger movement in the leg muscles.