Device Allows Monkeys to Move Paralyzed Wrists

Researchers from the University of Washington have found a method for allowing monkeys to regain the use of their paralyzed wrists. What they did was reroute control signals from the brain around the problem area using artificial connections. The hope is that this new finding could become a potential treatment for those with spinal cord injuries that resulted in paralysis.

They set up a very interesting experiment using monkeys. First, they hooked up electrodes to the motor cortex of the monkeys that monitored the cell activity. These electrodes then sent a signal to a computer which was wired to the monkey’s wrists. They injected a drug into the arm of these monkeys that induced paralysis in the wrists. Then they told the monkeys to play a familiar video game (one that they had played before and could do easily). The video game required movement of the wrists, and the only way that they would be able to move their wrists would be to change the activity of the neurons in the brain. The monkeys were able to move their wrists normally using this new system.

What makes this approach so interesting is that it is different; it forces the brain to adjust to something completely different. The brain had to teach itself how to use the computer system and it did very quickly. Many studies had previously been done that look for brain signals to specific parts of the body, yet nothing had been demonstrated about the brain being able to learn a new pathway on its own.

I found this article very interesting because this technology sounds promising for those suffering from spinal cord injuries. The researchers said that this system would be intended for those with paralysis from the neck down, but also said that this technology is still decades away from being used clinically. Another interesting consequence of this study was that it could be used in neuroprosthetic control. This study indicates that it could be beneficial to have direct connections between the brain and different parts of the body which is currently not the way that prosthetics are controlled.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/pdf/nature07418.pdf
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE49E9RY20081015