Bypass commands from the brain to legs through a computer
From: Medical Design Technology - 08/14/2014

Gait disturbance in individuals with spinal cord injury is attributed to the
interruption of neural pathways from brain to the spinal locomotor center,
whereas neural circuits locate below and above the lesion maintain most of
their functions. An artificial connection that bridges the lost pathway and
connects brain to spinal circuits has potential to ameliorate the functional
loss. A Japanese research group led by Shusaku Sasada, research fellow and
Yukio Nishimura, associate professor of the National Institute for
Physiological Sciences (NIPS), National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS)
has successfully made an artificial connection from the brain to the
locomotion center in the spinal cord by bypassing with a computer interface.
This allowed subjects to stimulate the spinal locomotion center using
volitionally-controlled muscle activity and to control walking in legs. This
result was published online in The Journal of Neuroscience on August 13, 2014.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.mdtmag.com/news/2014/08/bypass-commands-brain-legs-through-computer
http://www.ecnmag.com/news/2014/08/bypass-commands-brain-legs-through-computer
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-08/nion-bcf081114.php

Links:
Locomotion (with video 0:16):
http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/77579.php

Spinal Cord Bypass
http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/77578.php

Artificial Connection
http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/77577.php

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