A small step for monkeys is a giant leap toward helping paralyzed people walk again

In research conducted in China, a rhesus monkey whose spinal cord was partially severed quickly regained lost control over his paralyzed leg after researchers implanted a signal-emitting electronic array below the site of the spinal injury. That pulse generator sent out electrical signals to the monkey's leg to move, and the monkey's affected leg responded as early as six days after his spinal cord was deliberately injured. The signals to move were commands collected from the motor cortex of unharmed rhesus monkeys as they freely walked and used their legs. Together, the two devices leaped over the broken connection between brain and limb, allowing the partially paralyzed monkey to mimic key walking motions. The brain-spine interface offers new hope that patients who have lost function due to spinal cord injury might be able to restore movement and prevent the degeneration of the neural wiring that is needed for an eventual return to movement.