New Research Helps Mind Power Move Paralysed Limbs
11/11/2008
New technology, known as a 'brain-machine interface' has been developed by a team of US scientists at the University of Washington in the hope to develop implantable circuits for humans without the need for robotic limbs, according to reports in 'Nature'.
The technology, which is about the size of a mobile phone, bypasses injuries that stop nerve signals travelling from the brain to the muscles, offering hope for people with spinal cord damage.
Spinal cord injuries impair the nerve pathways between the brain and the limbs but spare both the limb muscles and the part of the brain that controls movement - the motor cortex. Recent studies have shown that quadriplegic patients - people who have paralysis in all four limbs - can consciously control the activity of nerve cells in the motor cortex that command hand movements, even after several years of paralysis.
The study, to date, has been carried out by re-routing motor cortex control signals from the brains of temporarily paralysed primates directly to their arm muscles. The 'brain-machine interface' interprets the brain signals and converts them into electrical impulses that can then stimulate muscle to contract. The researchers claim they now need to do trials on humans, which means that a treatment could be many years away.
Dr Mark Bacon of the UK Charity Spinal Research, said: "This is clearly a step in the right direction and proves the principle that artificially transducing the will to move generated in the brain with relevant motor activity can be achieved..........."
