This brain-controlled exoskeleton suit helps paralysed man walk again

A French man paralysed in a night club accident can walk again thanks to a brain-controlled exoskeleton in what scientists said was a breakthrough providing hope to tetraplegics seeking to regain movement. patient trained for months, harnessing his brain signals to control a computer-simulated avatar to perform basic movements before using robot device to walk. Doctors who conducted trial cautioned that device is years away from being publicly available but stressed that it h " potential to improve patients' quality of life and automy". 

'I wanted to do something with my brain'

man involved, identified only as Thibault, a 28-year-old from Lyon, said techlogy h given him a new lease of life.  Four years ago that life changed forever when he fell 12 metres (40 feet)  from a balcony while on a night out, severing his spinal chord and leaving him paralysed from shoulders down. 

"When you're in my position, when you can't do anything with your body... I wanted to do something with my brain," Thibault told AFP. 

Training on a video-game avatar system for months to acquire skills needed to operate exoskeleton, he said he h to "relearn" natural movements from scratch. 

"I can't go home tomorrow in my exoskeleton, but I've got to a point where I can walk. I walk when I want and I stop when I want." 

Cervical spinal cord injury leaves around 20 per cent of patients paralysed in all four limbs and is most severe injury of its kind. 

" brain is still capable of generating commands that would rmally move arms and legs, re's just thing to carry m out," said Alim-Louis Benabid, professor emeritus at Greble and le author of study published in Lancet Neurology. 

A team of experts from Hospital of Greble Alpes, biomedical firm Cinatech and CEA research centre stared by implanting two recording devices eir side of Thibault's he, between brain and skin. se re his sensorimotor cortex -- area that controls motor function. Each decoder transmits brain signals which are n translated by an algorithm into movements patient thought about. It is this system that sends physical commands that exoskeleton executes.

Thibault used avatar and video game to think about performing basic physical tasks such as walking, and reaching out to touch objects. Using avatar, video game and exoskeleton combined, he was able to cover length of one and a half football pitches over course of many sessions. Several previous studies have used implants to stimulate muscles in patients' own bodies, but Greble study is first to use brain signals to control a robot exoskeleton. Experts involved in research say it could potentially le to brain-controlled wheelchairs for paralysed patients.

"This isn't about turning man into machine but about responding to a medical problem," said Benabid. 

"We're talking about 'repaired man', t 'augmented man'. In a comment piece on study, Tom Shakespeare from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said exoskeleton system was "a long way from usable clinical possibility." 

But Thibault said trial offered a "mess of hope to people like me." 

"This is possible, even with our handicap."

(Picture: Fonds de dotation Clinatec)