Some of us live with paralysis, but all of us fear it. A spinal cord injury breaks the communication between the brain and the body it controls, and nerves don’t grow back. Spinal injuries have always meant a bleak and shortened lifetime confined to a bed, or possibly worse, imprisoned in our own heads. But now two recent breakthroughs offer hope to paralyzed people in both movement and communication.
Brain Implant Translates Paralyzed Man’s Thoughts Into Text With 94% Accuracy
(from ScienceAlert.com) “A man paralyzed from the neck down due to a spinal cord injury he sustained in 2007 has shown he can communicate his thoughts, thanks to a brain implant system that translates his imagined handwriting into actual text.
The device – part of a longstanding research collaboration called BrainGate – is a brain-computer interface (BCI), that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to interpret signals of neural activity generated during handwriting.
In this case, the man – called T5 in the study, and who was 65 years of age at the time of the research – wasn’t doing any actual writing, as his hand, along with all his limbs, had been paralyzed for several years.
But during the experiment, reported in Nature earlier in the year, the man concentrated as if he were writing – effectively, thinking about making the letters with an imaginary pen and paper…”
Paralyzed man with severed spine walks thanks to implant
(from BBC.com) “A paralyzed man with a severed spinal cord has been able to walk again, thanks to an implant developed by a team of Swiss researchers. It is the first time someone who has had a complete cut to their spinal cord has been able to walk freely.
The same technology has improved the health of another paralyzed patient to the extent that he has been able to become a father. The research has been published in the journal Nature Medicine.
Michel Roccati was paralyzed after a motorbike accident five years ago. His spinal cord was completely severed – and he has no feeling at all in his legs. But he can now walk – because of an electrical implant that has been surgically attached to his spine…”
