A 40-year-old man whose legs are paralyzed is able to climb stairs, move over ramps and switch from standing to walking, thanks to implants in his brain and spinal cord that pair with external devices to translate his thoughts into movement, NBC News reports.
The experiment was part of a proof-of-concept study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
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The patient, Gert-Jan Oskam, suffered a spinal cord injury from a motor bike accident 12 years ago.
“When we met him, he was completely paralyzed, unable to take a step by himself without assistance,” said Grégoire Courtine, the study’s author and a neuroscientist at EPFL, a research university in Switzerland.