Patients left paralysed by severe spinal cord injuries have recovered the ability to move their legs after training with an exoskeleton linked to their brain – with one even able to walk using two crutches. Scientists developed the Walk Again Project, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, thinking that they could enable paraplegics to move about using the exoskeleton controlled by their thoughts. But they were surprised to discover that during the training, the eight patients all started to regain the sense of touch and movement below the injury to their spine. It was previously thought that the nerves in seven of the patients’ spines had been completely severed.
But the researchers now believe that a few nerves survived, and these were reactivated by the training, which may have rewired circuits in the brain. The training involved the patients using virtual reality to control a computer avatar with a brain-machine interface. So, when they thought about walking forward, the avatar would move as if it was their body. They then used the same system to control a robot and finally an exoskeleton that the patients could wear. At the opening ceremony for the World Cup in Brazil two years ago, a young man who had been paralysed from the chest down symbolically kicked off the tournament using a brain-machine interface and exoskeleton.
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