Eradicating the wheelchair is a goal being explored from many angles. In the past we have seen complete exoskeletons that can move a person with precision and robustness, but then we found experts focused on repairing spinal cord damage, or at least reducing its impact. A recent study published by researchers at EPFL reveals excellent results applying a brain-spine interface that works as a bridge to restore mobility in two monkeys with partial paralysis.
Any kind of spinal cord damage can chain a person to a wheelchair for the rest of their life. The type of paralysis depends on where the injury is located, but the consequence is the same: someone loses the ability to walk. The fight is hard, and although considerable progress has been made, all initiatives speak of “several years” of waiting before they can become a viable treatment. If we have to think of a short-term alternative, all arrows seem to point toward the exoskeleton, but most of them are still prototypes, and their cost remains prohibitively high. That brings us back to medical efforts, and there is one that has been highlighted by the specialized press in recent hours.
A wireless bridge for the spinal cord
A group of researchers based at EPFL in Switzerland, with contributions from Medtronic, the universities of Bordeaux and Brown, Motac Neuroscience, Fraunhofer ICT-IMM and Lausanne University Hospital, published a study on the results of a new brain-spine interface that works as a wireless bridge between the brain and a receiver installed immediately after the area where the spinal cord was damaged. The interface has managed to restore movement in two non-human primates with paralysis in their right legs. The brain implant is based on a hundred small electrodes inserted into a small region of the cerebral cortex responsible for controlling limb movement. The information is sent to a computer that decodes the primate’s motor intention in real time, and retransmits it to the receiver, which also works as a stimulator.
The ability to interpret such complex signals without delays to the point of bypassing spinal damage will surely rewrite several rules in the world of neurotechnology. Of course, the fact of having deliberately injured two primates for this research opens a very delicate debate regarding ethics, and as we have said above, those responsible admit they still have many years of work ahead before turning this work into a therapy. Even so, all the elements used in the study have already been approved for clinical use or are about to receive it, a detail that could reduce waiting times.
