Primates Regain Control of Paralyzed Limb

Non-human primates regain control of their paralyzed leg ­- as early as six days after spinal cord injury - thanks to a neuroprosthetic interface that acts as a wireless bridge between the brain and spine, bypassing the injury. A feasibility clinical study has begun in Switzerland to test the therapeutic effects of the spine-part of the interface in people with spinal cord injury. On June 23rd, 2015, a primate with spinal cord injury regained control of its paralyzed leg with the help of a neuroprosthetic system called the 'brain-spine interface' that bypassed the lesion, restoring communication between the brain and the region of the spinal cord. The results are . The interface decodes brain activity associated with walking movements and relays this information to the spinal cord ­- below the injury - through electrodes that stimulate the neural pathways that activate leg muscles during natural locomotion. The neuroprosthetic interface was conceived at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, and developed together with an international network of collaborators including Medtronic, Brown University and Fraunhofer ICT-IMM. It was tested in collaboration with the University of Bordeaux, Motac Neuroscience and the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV).