In France, a young 28-year-old quadriplegic has managed to walk again by controlling an exoskeleton thanks to devices implanted two years ago in his brain.
A revolutionary advance. In quadriplegic people, traumatic lesions, partial or complete, of the spinal cord make it impossible to control the nerves of the four limbs. To limit dependency and facilitate the mobility of patients with severe motor disabilities, French researchers have developed a neuroprosthesis, which collects, transmits and decodes brain signals in real time to control an exoskeleton. All you have to do is think “I want to move my right arm” for the robot’s arm to move, in real time. Thanks to this technological feat, a paralyzed 28-year-old young man from Lyon managed to walk again, the scientists welcome in an article published on October 4 in The Lancet Neurology
For their “Brain Computer Interface” clinical trial, the researchers recruited Thibault, completely paralyzed following a spinal cord injury. In June 2017, Professor Stephan Chabardes, neurosurgeon at Grenoble University Hospital, implanted two devices (WIMAGINE®) comprising 64 electrodes each, on each hemisphere of his brain, in his sensory-motor cortex. The scientists had then communicated a lot about it in the press.
Following the operation, the patient trained for more than two years to mentally control the exoskeleton through various exercises. At home, he learned to move, by thought, virtual elements, such as an exoskeleton avatar. At the same time, one week a month, he went to Clinatec, a biomedical research center of the Commissariat for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies (CEA), in Grenoble (Isère), to pilot a real robot. By dint of work, he ended up acquiring a certain “dexterity”, welcome the researchers. Today he is therefore able to move his legs forward, bend his elbows or raise his shoulders.
“A message of hope”
Currently, only Thibault has been able to test this technology. “It’s a message of hope for people in the same condition as me: there are things possible, even if you have a big handicap”, explains the young man quoted by West France. But now that the researchers have proven their technology can work, three more patients are expected to follow suit.
According to Professor Benabid, “this device is an important step forward for the autonomy of people with disabilities”. “We are very proud of this proof of concept and are already thinking about new applications to facilitate the daily life of people with severe motor disabilities”, he explains in a press release on the CEA website. If this work is successful, within a few years, some of them could thus direct a wheelchair by thought or guide a motorized arm, thanks to the implantation of a sensor.
Implants to improve the daily lives of patients
In 2018, researchers at Stanford University in the United States succeeded in making three quadriplegic patients surf the Internet thanks to an implant. Designed in partnership with the company BrainGate, this device works from networks of electrodes in connection with the area of the brain that manages movements. The sensors decode and transmit the message from the brain to the device, in this case a tablet, which allows patients to use the Internet by simple thought.
“This study is another step toward the growing utility of intracortical brain-computer interfaces as potential assistive, communication, educational, environmental control, and entertainment devices for people with paralysis,” said the authors. study authors.
(See below Thibault controlling the exoskeleton):
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