A brain-to-computer technology that can translate thoughts into leg movements has enabled a man paralyzed from the waist down by a spinal cord injury to become the first such patient to walk without the use of robotics, doctors in Southern California reported on Wednesday.
The slow, halting first steps of the 28-year-old paraplegic were documented in a preliminary study that was published in the British-based Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, along with a YouTube video.
The feat was accomplished using a system allowing the brain to bypass the injured spinal cord and instead send messages through a computer algorithm to electrodes placed around the patient's knees to trigger controlled leg muscle movements.
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