New Research Offers Hope to Restoring Movement after Paralysis

Lisa Franchi February 19, 2014

Damage to the spinal cord can stop the flow of information from the brain to the body, leaving people unable to walk or feed themselves. Now, US scientists used a new method to stimulate the avatar’s spinal cord, resulting in controlled movement. This groundbreaking research is considered “a key step forward” which may be further explored to allow paralysed people to regain control of their own body.

Scientists at Harvard Medical School used a master monkey and a sedated avatar as subjects for the research. The master had a brain chip implanted that could monitor the activity of up to 100 neurons. During training, the physical actions of the monkey were matched up with the patterns of electrical activity in the neurons. Meanwhile, the avatar had 36 electrodes implanted in the spinal cord. Tests were performed to see how stimulating different combinations of electrodes affected movement.

The two monkeys were then hooked up so that the brain scans in one controlled movements in real time in the other. The sedated avatar held a joystick, while the master had to think about moving a cursor up or down.

In 98% of the tests, the master could correctly control the avatar’s arm.

"The hope is ultimately to get completely natural movement, I think it’s theoretically possible, but it will require an exponential additional effort to get to that point." co-researcher Dr Ziv Williams told BBC. He said giving paralysed people even a small amount of movement could dramatically alter their quality of life.

Dr Williams added that this was a "very important research" with "profound" implications "especially for controlling limbs in spinal cord injury, or controlling prosthetic limbs with limb amputees". Nevertheless, more work is needed. Moving a cursor up and down is a long way from the dextrous movement needed to drink from a cup, the researcher explained.

Another thing, people suffering from paralysis may also have problems with their muscles – they tend to become more rigid. Plus, the fluctuating blood pressure may also make restoring control more challenging.

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

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Master monkey’s brain controls sedated ’avatar’