CHRISTIAN ETHIER AND LEE MILLER
Scientists at Northwestern University have developed a device that allows monkeys to reach out and grab a ball, even though they cannot feel some of their arm muscles. A panel of electrodes implanted in the monkeys’ brains decodes commands from the motor cortex (the region that controls movements), while electrodes in their arms directly stimulate the appropriate muscles.
This electronic middle-man, known as functional electrical stimulation (FES), bypasses the spinal cord, and allows the monkeys to perform simple tasks despite their paralyzed muscles, whose connections to the brain have been temporarily disabled. Its inventors, who published their findings today (April 18) in Nature, hope that a similar system could help people with spinal cord injuries to regain control of their hands, giving them more independence ...
