http://spanish.china.org.cn/international/txt/2016-04/14/content_38239219.htm
US researchers announced today that a brain implant for the first time allowed a man with paralysis of arms and legs restore movement of your finger, hand and wrist using thought
Researchers at the Ohio State University, the Institute Battelle Memorial and the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research have developed a tiny computer chip called NeuroLife and implanted in the brain of Ian Burkhart 24-year-old, who was paralyzed due to injuries suffered six years ago at the top of the spinal cord by an accident during a dive.
the device combines learning algorithms and decode brain activity of the user and a sleeve stimulation muscular high definition translates neural impulses from the brain and sends new signals to the paralyzed limb, the researchers reported in the British journal Nature.
the device works by interpreting thoughts and brain signals, leaving aside the bone cord injured and connecting directly with a sleeve placed in the patient’s arm to stimulate the muscles that control the arm and hand Burkhart.
in clinical trials, Burkhart was able to take and pass a credit card and play a video game guitar with his fingers and hand. He could also take a bottle, empty its contents into a bowl and use a stick to stir the contents of the container and pick up a phone to bring it to your ear.
“We are demonstrating for the first time a quadriplegic patient can improve their motor function and hand movements, “said Ali Rezai, one of the study authors and neurosurgeon Wexner Ohio state Medical Center.
Burkhart was implanted computer chip , smaller than a pea, during a three-hour surgery in April 2014. the patient was able to demonstrate the neural technology two months later when he could open and close your hand just by thinking.
“in the last decade we have learned to decipher brain signals completely paralyzed and now patients for the first time, those thoughts are becoming movement, “said Chad Bouton, one of the study authors, who led the team of Battelle before joining the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research based in New York.
“Our findings show that the recorded signals from within the brain can be redirected to spend skip the injured spinal cord and allow the restoration of functional movement and even the movement of individual fingers. “
according to the researchers, this technology promises to help patients with various brain and spinal cord injuries like strokes or traumatic brain injury to be more independent and functional.
“We expect this technology to evolve into a wireless system that connect the brain signals and thoughts to the outside world to improve function and quality of life of those with disabilities” Rezai said. “One of our main objectives is to ensure that this is readily available for patients to use it at home”.
The researchers plan to test the device in five patients and said they have already identified a second patient the study began in the summer.
“Participating in this study has changed me in the sense that now I have much more hope regarding the future,” Burkhart said, “I always had some level of hope but now I know, first hand, that there will be advances in science and technology that will improve my life. ” End
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