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A collaboration between Swiss and French researchers has just enabled Gert Jan, who has been paraplegic for 12 years, to walk again. For this, the connection between his brain and his spinal cord was restored
Rwalkeven hardlyeven slowly, is a feat achieved by Gert Jan, paraplegic for 12 years after a bicycle accident. Now he manages to to release his p-movementsar thought. A device decodes electrical signals from his brain, then converts his movement intentions into impulses, which eventually activate his leg muscles.
“I have all the control”
This connection between the brain and the spinal cord is what is called a digital bridge. “It takes a first operation on the level of the brainon the motor cortex (…) then a second on the spinal cord“, precise Pr Jocelyne Bloch, neurosurgeon. Since he has his two implants, Gert Jan trains every day. “I can decide when I walk, I have all the control”, he explains. At the origin of this feat, the neurosurgeon Grégoire Courtine and his Swiss team, in Lausanne.
In view of this success, the team is preparinge to launch a similar test to restore arm or hand function.
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