2023-05-24 17:00:24
NOS News•
Building of Streets
Science editor
Building of Streets
Science editor
A team of Swiss and French neuroscientists has succeeded in restoring communication between the brain and spinal cord of a man with partial spinal cord injury. As a result, 40-year-old Gert-Jan Oskam can walk again, simply by consciously thinking about it.
He had a ‘digital bridge’ built in, allowing his brain to communicate with his spinal cord. With that connection, he can walk naturally again – with the help of a walker or crutches.
Two electronic implants in his brain recognize the electrical signals emitted when he thinks about walking. These signals are converted using artificial intelligence and wirelessly transmitted to an implant in the spinal cord, so that he has control over his legs again. “You think of a step, and you take a step. It’s a natural process,” says Oskam.
“Gert-Jan is now the only person in the world with a fully implanted system with digital connection,” explains his rehabilitation doctor Ilse van Nes, from the Sint Maartenskliniek in Nijmegen: “Two days after the operation, he felt that he was getting in touch with his legs. After a few sessions we already had a working system. We really didn’t expect that.” The investigation is today published in Nature.
Natural recovery
At first, Oskam still had to consciously concentrate on walking. After a while he could just talk at the same time. So walking became a matter of course again, just like with non-paralyzed people. “I now dare to stand again and look around me,” he says. “That used to be a scary moment for me.”
Five years ago, Oskam already had a neurostimulator implanted in his spinal cord, but he could not control it himself. “I then had to follow the rhythm of the stimulator. That led to stress, because if I missed a step I had to wait again. I was constantly interrupted”.
What is special is that he can now also walk a lot better without the system being switched on. A clear improvement has therefore occurred as a result of the training. For example, he can now drink a beer with friends standing at the bar and he has even started renovating his house.
The researchers themselves were also surprised by this recovery. “It was fantastic to see. More than ten years after an accident you can still see improvement. His whole body has improved, not just his locomotion. He looks ten years younger,” says neurosurgeon Jocelyne Bloch. She performed the operation almost a year ago in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Correspondent Wouter Zwart with Gert-Jan in Switzerland:
Gert-Jan can carefully walk again after spinal cord injury thanks to a Swiss team
The question is how it is possible that Oskam can also partly control his legs without the interface. Have nerves grown that have made new connections with each other, enabling better contact between the brain and spinal cord? “We cannot look at that, a major operation would be required for that,” says rehabilitation doctor Van Nes, “but that is our suspicion”.
Neuroscientist Joost Verhaagen, himself not involved in the research, speaks of “a very good study, very interesting”. Verhaagen: “The researchers have now made a device with which they combine stimulation of the spinal cord with the artificial transmission of signals from the brain. This results in a much more natural gait pattern.”
Verhaagen points out that the new technique has only been tested on one person. The researchers themselves are hopeful that the technique can also work in other patients. Targeted stimulation of the spinal cord has now been performed in nine other patients with similar injuries, and brain activity has already been deciphered in two other patients.
The researchers are already thinking about other applications. For example, they have been given permission to restore control of arms and hands using the same technique. The scientists hope that the same principle can also help people with a stroke to regain better control over their bodies.
In the meantime, Oskam himself enjoys his newfound freedom of movement every day: “I just walked through a market and bought strawberries. It’s a kick to do that.”
#Paralyzed #man #walk #digital #bridge #brain