Paris (AFP) – Six years after an accident that left him paralyzed, an American can now use his hand to stir his coffee or grab an object, using software, reports a study published Wednesday in Nature, a first offers hope for the millions of paralyzed in the world.
“This is the first time a person completely paralyzed can repeat a movement using just his own thoughts” said at a Chad Feinstein Institute Button press conference for medical research in the United States, co-author of the study.
Chad button and a team of US scientists are responsible for a system called NeuroLife that is able to restore communication between the brain and muscles bypassing the spinal cord.
Ian Burkhart, an American of 24 years, is a quadriplegic for six years following a swimming accident that damaged her spinal cord.
“the doctors told me that the best thing I could do would be to move my shoulders, but nothing more for the rest of my life” explained Ian Burkhart reporters at the same news conference on Tuesday, the eve of the announcement.
in April 2014, doctors transplanted it a computer chip (smaller that a pea) in the motor cortex of the brain.
This chip transmits the thoughts of the patient to a computer that decodes and sends commands from the brain to a series of bracelets that electrically stimulate arm muscles .
scientists have been working for more than 25 years on the translation of thought into action through software: they showed that they could, without even beat an eyelash, write on a screen, or move an articulated arm-shaped robot for his coffee as was done in 2012 a woman who became a quadriplegic after a stroke (CVA).
in 2014, they demonstrated that a monkey could succeed by thinking transmitted by electrodes, to move the arm of another primate temporarily paralyzed with anesthetic
-. Fifteen months of rehabilitation –
“We sought to decipher the signals in the brain that are specifically associated with hand movements, “explains Chad button. “The areas of the brain responsible for movement are intact but signals coming to an injured spinal cord. They are completely blocked and can not get to the muscles.”
In June 2014, two months after implantation of the chip, Ian Burkhart was already able to open and close his hand just by thinking movement even if his muscles were weakened because they have served a long time.
after 15 months of rehabilitation at the rate of three weekly sessions, the patient can now grab a bottle and pour its contents into a jar. It can hold a phone to his ear, stirring his coffee, pick up a spoon on the floor. He now plays guitar via a video game.
“It really opens many new doors to more complex movements,” said Chad button. “What we try to do is help people regain control over their bodies.”
The researchers also hope to be able to switch to a son without system so that the patient is no longer encumbered by cables, for now, link bracelets from his arm to the computer and the chip from his brain.
“for me, being in a wheelchair and unable to walk is not the worst, “said Ian Burkhart. “The worst is the loss of independence that I need other people.” An autonomy that partially paralyzed could find for everyday gestures.
“For now we are at clinical stage (…) but it is a system that can be used outside hospital, home, outside and even that can actually improve my quality of life, “enthused the young man
. Source: AFP
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