![]() ![]() ![]() When he wants to move, the implants read his brain signals and send that information to sensors on a helmet-like device on his head, per BBC News’ Pallab Ghosh. The new technique involved placing two implants on Oskam’s brain. Oskam participated in this research but stopped making progress after three years. ![]() In previous research, Courtine and other scientists have used a combination of electrical stimulation to the lower spine and physical therapy to help people who had been paralyzed regain the ability to walk. “A few months ago, I was able, for the first time after ten years, to stand up and have a beer with my friends,” Oskam tells the Guardian. Oskam can walk more than about 330 feet at once and stand for several minutes without using his hands for support, according to CNN’s Jamie Gumbrecht and Deidre McPhillips. The technology “enables natural control over the movements of his legs to stand, walk, climb stairs and even traverse complex terrain,” the study authors write. Now, using the implants, “we’ve captured the thoughts of Gert-Jan and translated these thoughts into a stimulation of the spinal cord to re-establish voluntary movement,” Grégoire Courtine, a co-author of the study and a neuroscientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, said at a press conference, per CBS News’ Aliza Chasan. He suffered severe but partial damage to his spinal cord, which paralyzed his legs and partially paralyzed his arms, researchers write in a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The patient, 40-year-old Gert-Jan Oskam of the Netherlands, was told he would never walk again after a biking accident, according to the Guardian’s Ian Sample. A man paralyzed in 2011 has regained the ability to stand and walk with the help of implants placed in his brain and spinal cord. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |