The wi-fi brain to walk again

A series of electrodes connected wirelessly to an external computer allowed to bypass a brain injury that prevented macaques to walk, and "revive", in the space of a week or two, limbs that were not moving anymore. Research of the Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) has been published in Nature.

ROAD INTERRUPTED. Injuries to the spinal cord block the passage of electrical signals from the

brain that deliver instructions to the nerves responsible for movement of the limbs. They are wounds that rarely heal and causing various forms of paralysis.

In the study, two rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) with spinal injuries that prevented control of a limb, they were able to walk again thanks to a "bridge" made between the motor cortex (the center of the movement in the brain) and the nerves of ' paralyzed limb.

Get around it. A chip implanted in that area of ​​the brain of monkeys recorded the electrical activity of neurons - the "instructions" to be sent to the limbs - and transmitted via wi-fi to an external computer. The device recorded the message and sent it to a pulse generator which, placed on the lesion downstream, managed to stimulate nerves and cascade, the muscles involved.

In six days or two weeks, depending on the severity of the injury, the two monkeys were able to regain control and limb to walk almost normally, although not perfect.

AND MAN? The technology used is not very different from the deep brain stimulation already used to treat Parkinson's disease, and some experts in the field suggest that in 10 years a similar form of experimentation can be tried on human beings.

Unlike the macaques, however, the man just walks on two feet, and in an upright position: the challenge will therefore be more difficult. Locomotion, in addition, also involves the control of balance and the ability to change direction and avoid obstacles - all conditions that have not been put to the test. Finally, with time, the plants of this type tend to lose effectiveness in the signal reading: therefore also be necessary to evaluate the durability factor.