MIND-CONTROLLED EXOSKELETON HELPS PARALYSED MAN WALK AGAIN

A French man paralysed in a night club accident has been able to walk again thanks to a four-limb robotic system, or exoskeleton, that is commanded and controlled by signals from his brain.

The 28-year-old man – known as Thibault, who suffered a 12m fall off a night club balcony back in 2015 – said taking his first steps in the suit felt like being the “first man on the Moon”. The four-limbed robotic system controlled allowed Thibault to move his arms and walk using a ceiling-mounted harness for balance. The whole-body exoskeleton, which is part of a two-year trial by Clinatec and the University of Grenoble, is operated by recording and decoding brain signals.

As part of the trial, a team of experts from the Hospital of Grenoble Alpes, biomedical firm Cinatech and the CEA research centre started by implanting two recording devices either side of Thibault’s head, between the brain and the skin. These devices read his sensorimotor cortex – the area that controls motor function.

Each decoder transmits the brain signals which are then translated by an algorithm into the movements the patient has thought about. It is this system which sends physical commands for the exoskeleton to execute.

The man involved in the trial has said the technology had given him a new lease of life. “When you’re in my position, when you can’t do anything with your body... I wanted to do something with my brain,” Thibault said. Training on a video-game avatar system for months to acquire the skills needed to operate the exoskeleton, he said he had to “relearn” natural movements from scratch.

“I can’t go home tomorrow in my exoskeleton,” he added, “but I’ve got to a point where I can walk. I walk when I want, and I stop when I want.”


Thibault used the avatar and video game to think about performing basic physical tasks such as walking and reaching out to touch objects. And through this method, he was able to cover the length of one and a half football pitches over the course of many sessions.

However, the team cautioned that the device is years away from being publicly available, and “is far from clinical application”, but stressed that it has “the potential to improve patients’ quality of life and autonomy”.

Professor Alim-Louis Benabid of the University of Grenoble said the exoskeleton used is the first semi-invasive wireless brain-computer system designed for long term use to activate all four limbs: “Previous brain-computer studies have used more invasive recording devices implanted beneath the outermost membrane of the brain, where they eventually stop working,” he said. “They have also been connected to wires, limited to creating movement in just one limb, or have focused on restoring movement to patients’ own muscles.”

A team of experts from the Hospital of Grenoble Alpes, biomedical firm Cinatech and the CEA research centre started by implanting two recording devices either side of Thibault's head, between the brain and the skin
Previous studies have used implants to stimulate muscles in patients’ own bodies. However, the Grenoble study is the first to use brain signals to control a robot exoskeleton. Furthermore, experts involved in the research say it could potentially lead to brain-controlled wheelchairs for paralysed patients.

“This isn’t about turning man into machine but about responding to a medical problem,” said Benabid. “We’re talking about ‘repaired man’, not ‘augmented man’.”

In a comment piece on the study, Professor Tom Shakespeare of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said the exoskeleton, however, is a long way from being a usable clinical possibility.

“A danger of hype always exists in this field,” he said. “Even if ever workable, cost constraints mean that hi-tech options are never going to be available to most people in the world with spinal cord injury.”

That being said, Thibault said the trial offered a “messaged of hope to people like me”.