Brain-machine interfaces trigger partial neurological recovery in chronic paraplegics

(Associação Alberto Santos Dumont para Apoio à Pesquisa) In this study, an international research team reports the discovery that eight completely paraplegic patients, who have suffered a spinal cord lesion many years previously, have regained partial voluntary motor control and sensitivity of their legs after 12 months of training with brain-machine interfaces, including a brain-controlled exoskeleton. The patients also regained important degrees of bladder and bowel control. As a result, 50 percent of the patients have been clinically upgraded from complete to incomplete paraplegia.

from EurekAlert! - Social and Behavioral Science http://ift.tt/2aMgS6Y