- Apr 25, 2013
- 5,355
If I told you that one day computers will allow people who are paralyzed to walk again, would you believe me? Well, if the success of Japanese researchers last week is any indication, the ability to control the human body with a computer is not very far down the road.
On August 14th, Yukio Nishimura, an associate professor of the National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NIPS), issued a press release saying that the research team had successfully created an artificial connection between the brain and the legs of a test subject.
According to the press release, the team essentially tapped into the signal from the brain for arm movement so that whenever the patient moved his arm during walking activity, the computer interface used that signal to control a magnetic stimulator that drove the “spinal locomotion center”, enabling full leg movement.
Although the subject tested was “neurologically intact”, they were asked to keep their legs relaxed. Whenever the computer bypass was disabled, the subjects legs remained stationary. When the bypass was enabled, the legs would move in time with the movement of the subject’s arms.
This kind of research has been going on for some time, with milestones of successes along the way. For example, in 2011, seven years after a motorcycle accident left him paralyzed, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh helped 30-year-old Tim Hemmes control the movement of a robotic arm by using an electrocorticography grid (EcoG) placed on the surface of Hemmes’ brain.
Full Article
On August 14th, Yukio Nishimura, an associate professor of the National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NIPS), issued a press release saying that the research team had successfully created an artificial connection between the brain and the legs of a test subject.
According to the press release, the team essentially tapped into the signal from the brain for arm movement so that whenever the patient moved his arm during walking activity, the computer interface used that signal to control a magnetic stimulator that drove the “spinal locomotion center”, enabling full leg movement.
Although the subject tested was “neurologically intact”, they were asked to keep their legs relaxed. Whenever the computer bypass was disabled, the subjects legs remained stationary. When the bypass was enabled, the legs would move in time with the movement of the subject’s arms.
This kind of research has been going on for some time, with milestones of successes along the way. For example, in 2011, seven years after a motorcycle accident left him paralyzed, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh helped 30-year-old Tim Hemmes control the movement of a robotic arm by using an electrocorticography grid (EcoG) placed on the surface of Hemmes’ brain.
Full Article
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