Paralyzed Man Uses Own Brainwaves To Walk Again -- No Exoskeleton Required

Zothecula writes: A man suffering complete paralysis in both legs has regained the ability to walk again using electrical signals generated by his own brain. Unlike similar efforts that have seen paralyzed subjects walk again by using their own brainwaves to manually control robotic limbs, the researchers say this is the first time a person with complete paralysis in both legs due to spinal cord injury was able to walk again under their own power and demonstrates the potential for noninvasive therapies to restore control over paralyzed limbs.

Comments

Cool

[Ronin Developer]

Next, we will hear how he was attacked by an inflatable flying shark.

Seriously, this is a pretty radical advance.

Re:Cool

[Tablizer]

I too had just read the mind-control-shark headline nearby and for a split second mixed the two stories, picturing a walking shark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Re:Cool

[ColdWetDog]

"They can fix a spine, but not on VA benefits, not in this economy."

This is actually seriously cool - bypassing the broken wiring (or extending unbroken wiring). Obviously first baby steps but give it a decade or two, could be very, very interesting.

Re:Cool

[sims 2]

Next up: Dancing sharks; https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

And later; Hit me with your pet shark! By Back in Black and White; https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Re:Cool

[sims 2]

The above post is incoherent and unintelligible.
It reads like a SCIgen paper.

Re:Cool

[Anonymous Coward]

70+ dead astronomers including NASA scientists, independents, and college kids, FEMA region 3 warning for acquisition of freeze dried food, Jade Helm 15 urban warfare training, UN vehicles en mass on US soil, underground tunnels connecting military bases, well over 3 billion rounds of .223, threat of martial law, breakdown of the constitution and failure to maintain the economy by our leadership. Magnetic north and south poles moving towards each other through Siberia and India, plate tectonic activity heating up around the pacific plate well into the southern Asia plate clusters, with tremors migrating from San Andreas fault east as far as Yellowstone who incidentally seems to be have been having trouble keeping blacktop from melting on the ground through parts of it due to heat from magma on the north American plate for years now. Global warming on Earth, presence of neon gas as an atmosphere on the moon that was not there before and other planetary change phenomena observed in our solar system. Oh, and captain pedo-bear from the Vatican showing up.

Something has these idiots spooked, plausible conclusions:

Planet X
Wormwood
Nemesis
The Destroyer
Nibiru

Choose your favorite civilization's sacred text.

The post is far better to read than the gay nigger one any day.

Re:Cool

[St.Creed]

Dude, don't drink *and* do drugs *and* post at the same time. You can drink and do drugs, or you can do drugs and post, but combining them gets messy very fast, as your post illustrates in lurid detail.

Re:Cool

[MobSwatter]

Technically, I do like my beer and whiskey, but I do not do drugs. Enjoy your sleep.

Re:Cool

[KGIII]

Did you forget to check the 'post anonymously' box?

Re:Cool

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope, you're still stupid. Even more so, in fact, after that last post. The whole you're in is getting deeper.

Re:Cool

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps you are Catholic. So Wormwood right?

Re: Cool

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes! Yes! More! More!

(Claps)

Re: Cool

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, so what is your theory as to why these chumps are so spooked?

Re: Cool

[george1101]

This is no joke. Gordan freeman will literally make you shit yourself from the unobservable part of the universe... Secondary content aside. This man is a complete badass in the face of inescapable odds. He literally does not accept how the universe made him to be.. Fear him but most importantly, seriously in reality as you know.. Fear the guy with the guy with the technological advancements that causes the world to change the universe. Yes it is a big step to take... But eventually every one will realise the threat is not on our planet....

Re:Cool

[tehcyder]

The post is far better to read than the gay nigger one any day.

Well, it's shorter , I'll give you that.

Re:Cool

[tehcyder]

Technically, I do like my beer and whiskey, but I do not do drugs. Enjoy your sleep.

Anti-psychotic medicines count as drugs. If you are the original AC, you appear to have FORGOTTEN to take them befor posting.

Re:Cool

[Anonymous Coward]

Never prescribed, not really into the big pharma train and then again I am not female and wouldn't be much use being knocked down, used/abused and thrown away. If a person is watching the government and noting and connecting observations, then posting them and this is perceived to be by you as psychotic, then perhaps you missed your calling in the medical industry, they do love their quacks.

Grey's Anatomy

[Anonymous Coward]

I think I saw something like this in an episode of Grey's Anatomy last season!

Read the comments from the source

[TomR teh Pirate]

So much idiocy in so little space. Concerning the technical details of the article, I can't help but wonder if this person is in a similar danger to diabetics who get minor injuries to their legs and are unaware of it due to neuropathy, only to then get infections that lead to eventual amputation. My grandmother was one such person. This tech seems more like a bridge than a solution to the important problem of inducing nerve regeneration / replacement.

Re:Read the comments from the source

[Ronin Developer]

Did you actually read the article? They were able to stimulate the nerves in the legs by interpreting the brain waves detected by an electroencephalograph. They acknowledged that there is no feedback to the brain (as of yet) to restore feeling. This has nothing to do with nerve regeneration.

Diabetic neuropathy is the result of damaged nerves from too much glucose. I, like many other diabetics, face it as a real possibility. I also acknowledge that the cause for DN is from the high glucose levels damaging the nerves. Regeneration will only delay the inevitable. Instead, they need to find ways to restore proper insulin production and to reverse insulin resistance.

The technique in the article is a first bridge and a monumental step forward to restoring mobility at a time when nerve regeneration isn't yet possible.

Re:Read the comments from the source

[sims 2]

There was an article about trying to repair the nerves in the spine earlier this month.
From last week: Damaged Spinal Cord "Rewires" Itself With Help of Electrical Stimulation.
http://science.slashdot.org/st...

Much work still to be done.

Re: Read the comments from the source

[TomR teh Pirate]

You didn't dispute anything I said. So yes, I read the article...

No Exoskeleton Required

[Anonymous Coward]

but hanging him from the ceiling might make this a little impratical.

So religious healing does have merit

[Anonymous Coward]

Spiritual healing has long been denounced by atheists, but this research could very well prove than miracles can and do happen so long as the subject has the willpower.

edit: Captcha was "sobering." How appropriate.

Re:So religious healing does have merit

[ChrisMaple]

If research leads to an engineering solution and an understood technology, then it ceases to fall under even the sloppiest definition of "miracle".

Re:So religious healing does have merit

[Iamthecheese]

Aeronautics was neither an industry nor a science. It was a miracle.

- Igor Sikorsky

Re:So religious healing does have merit

[lazy genes]

Science moves way too fast and religion too slow. They are two powers that always need to be separated. If separated, they help our species evolve at the proper speed. The crippled man will probably drown next week, if science had its way.

Re:So religious healing does have merit

[Anonymous Coward]

yes.

Aeronautics was neither an industry nor a science. It was a miracle.

  - Igor Sikorsky

it was a miracle that the right people were able to get together and do stuff. they got together and advanced science and the state of humanity. it was a miracle that by chance all the atoms fell into the right place and we're around to experience it now.

its a shame that the miracle wasn't perfect and people like you exist today.

religion is an excuse. its an excuse for war. its an excuse for sexism. its an excuse for racism.
unfortunately its also an excuse for people who do good things in the world. they should be allowed to be able to perform those good deeds without needing to have religion as their excuse.

for god my ass. anyone who thinks religion is necessary is an ignorant fuck-tard. Igor Sikorsky was a Russian scientist who designed helicopters and revolutionized aeronautics. not someone who you would quote in your piss ass defense of "miracles"

-Someone who is going to change the entire fucking world

events like this

[Anonymous Coward]

Are we bodies that have created a mind or minds tgat have created a body. More and more I believe the later.

I think I heard about this

[93 Escort Wagon]

John Wayne starred in the movie. I remember Dan Daley playing a ukulele and singing "I'm gonna move that toe" - probably was meant as an inspiration, but I think it just kept annoying the heck out of the paralyzed guy until he got motivated enough to walk again just so he could punch the ukulele player in the mouth.

Wait, we're not talking about something that happened in the 1940s?

Dohoho

[Anonymous Coward]

As soon as i read this title, i knew. I knew, i don't need blood magic to control the length of sexual intercourse, or to manually control my boner impulses, or to cure impotence. The answers lies HERE.

One of my limbs has always been brain controlled

[Anonymous Coward]

I think and it raises! Ha Ha

Solve the real problem

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

"We're gonna connect you back up to the nerves below the back break."

"Finally! Thank you, doctor!"

"There you go, you can walk again. Aww, don't cry!'

"My legs aren't what I wanted you to hook the nerves to!"