Swiss doctors have implanted implants in the brain and spine of a 40-year-old man whose legs have been paralyzed for 12 years. According to Nature, the implants transmit impulses from the brain to the limbs, so that a person can again control them.
Gert-Jan Oskam, a resident of the Netherlands, was involved in a bicycle accident and suffered a neck injury, as a result of which the spinal cord was damaged. The man was completely paralyzed in his legs and partially in his arms. Now Oskam can stand, walk and even climb stairs.
The device, which is called the "brain spinal interface", was developed on the basis of the work of neuroscientist Grégoire Courtin from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and his colleagues. In 2018, scientists demonstrated a technology that stimulated the lower spine with electrical impulses, thereby restoring mobility in people with spinal cord injuries. The operation to implant implants in the skull was performed by a neurosurgeon from the University of Lausanne, Professor Jocelyn Bloch.
Oskam was one of the participants in this experiment. The new system connected an implant already in his spine with two implants implanted in his skull so that two grids with 64 electrodes rest against the membrane covering the brain. When the patient thinks about walking, implants in the skull detect electrical activity in the cerebral cortex, then the signal is transmitted wirelessly to a computer that Oskam carries in his backpack, and from there the information is fed to the spinal pulse generator.
After 40 sessions during which the patient learned to use the device, he regained the ability to voluntarily move his legs and feet.