Paralysed man walks using only his brain power

It is the first time a paralyzed person has been able to use their own legs to walk rather than an exoskeleton.

The system works like this, according to Live Science: Adam wore a cap covered in electrodes, which picked up the electrical signals in his brain (the same ones that show up on an EEG).

The technology helped the 28-year-old man regain his leg movements after he lost control of his muscles waist down when he met with a spinal cord injury, Southern California doctors reported.

Their novel approach permitted the young man, who has complete paralysis of both legs due to spinal cord injury, to take steps without relying on manually controlled robotic limbs.

Dr. An Do, the coauthor of the study, said that even after staying paralyzed for years, a patient’s brain cells don’t lose their ability of generating powerful brain waves that can allow him or her to walk.

The scientists have a number of major hurdles to overcome before the device can be used to help paraplegics walk freely. “The first few moments, I was so focused on just walking that I couldn’t think of anything else”. Without having feeling in their legs, they would not be able to walk. A year ago, they were able to direct brain signals through a computerized system to a robotic prosthesis in a volunteer’s leg and generate movement.

The patient in this breakthrough case first had to undergo mental training to reactivate his brain’s walking ability.

Next came the leg training, to get the muscles into shape to walk again, followed by a practice walk 5cm above the ground, without any pressure on the muscles. The subject later was trained to control an avatar in a virtual reality environment, which validated the specific brain wave signals produced by the algorithm.

The results are described in a study published in the Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, and you can see a video of the man walking-albeit very slowly and with assistance-below.

“In addition, such an implant could deliver sensation back to the brain, enabling the user to feel their legs”.

Fritz propelled himself over a distance of 3.6 meters (11.8 feet) across the floor of UC Irvine’s iMove Lab, though his weight was partially supported by an overhead suspension harness and a walker he grasped to keep his body upright, researchers said.

“Once we’ve confirmed the usability of this noninvasive system, we can look into invasive means, such as brain implants”, said Dr. Zoran Nenadic, the study’s lead senior researcher.

They wrote: “This robustness in real-time control, together with a high level of performance sustained across months, indicates that BCI-FES (brain-computer interface functional electrical stimulation) mediated restoration of basic walking function after SCI (spinal cord injury) is feasible”.