Brain Implants Help Paralyzed Monkeys Walk Again, EPFL Study

Scientists have developed a set of wireless brain and spinal cord implants that helped monkeys with severed spinal cords regain control of their paralyzed limbs and walk again.

The device, reported Wednesday in the journal Nature, is the first to give a paralyzed primate the ability to control its limbs with its brain.

“We’re actually taking brain signals and putting them back into the nervous system at the spinal cord level to activate locomotion,” said David Borton, a neuroengineer at Brown University and co-author of the study. “That hasn’t been done before.”

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