Surgical techniques available today fall short in treating paralysis due to nerve damage of the spinal cord. Scientists are attempting to utilize controlled robotic limbs to give patients the ability to move paralyzed limbs with their own brain activity. Ziv Williams of Harvard is developing spinal cord prosthetics in monkeys and has been successful in demonstrating the value of brain machine interface action in paralyzed animals. His team connected 2 monkeys with brain machine electrodes, and allowed one monkey interacting with a computer to control the movements of the paralyzed monkey's limbs." We envision putting a microchip into the brain to record the activity behind the intent for movement and putting another microchip in the spinal cord below the site of injury to stimulate limb movements, and then connecting the microchips," Williams said.
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