Utah researchers have taken an early step which might help people who are paralyzed walk and move again.
They've discovered that areas in the brain which control movement are still working, still able to send signals long after the paralysis.
Science Specialist Ed Yeates reports
that with implanted electrodes, the Utah team might be able to intercept those signals and send them to robotic legs and arms.
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In the movie "Robocop," a badly injured man walks and moves again because scientists find a way to mesh man and machine.
Though the film is fictional, the concept itself is not.
In fact, a discovery by University of Utah researchers draws the reality of it all a little closer.
They took MRI scans of the brains of normal patients and those with spinal cord injuries and found something paralyzed patients have long hoped for even five years, perhaps longer, after paralysis.
The neurons in the brain's motor cortex which control movement are still able to send signals.
ED MAYNARD, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH BIOENGINEERING: "IT SAYS THERE IS SOMETHING LEFT BEHIND. IT IS LEFT BEHIND FOR A LONG TIME. AND IT'S FUNCTIONING. IT'S JUST WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO DO."
So since paralyzed people can still "think" movement, could signals from the brain be interfaced with a computer and a robotic arm or limb allowing them to stand and walk again?
A device called Freehand already lets some paralyzed patients pick up things by flexing a non-paralyzed muscle. But it has no connection to the brain.
With these electrodes though, implanted in the brain, the connection is with the command center itself.
ED YEATES, SCIENCE SPECIALIST: "THIS IS ONLY A MODEL TO SHOW HOW ONE HUNDRED ELECTRODES ARE SET UP IN AN ARRAY. THIS IS THE ACTUAL SIZE - A MICROCHIP TWENTY FIVE TIMES SMALLER."
ED MAYNARD: "GRAB STRONG, GRAB SOFT, GRAB FAST, MOVE FAST. ALL THESE SIGNALS EXIST AT THE CORTICAL LEVEL - SO WE WOULD LIKE TO GET TO THEM TOO. BUT THOSE SIGNALS REQUIRE MORE ELECTRODES TO FIND."
In the first applications, researchers envision these electrodes stimulating robotic wheelchairs, legs, hands and arms. But long term, paralysis victims like Christopher Reeve still hope for the more direct route where these same signals could re-establish movement in the muscles of the actual paralyzed limbs.
Even more pronounced-- regrow the nerves themselves.
Oct. 24, 2001--
