Experiment offers hope for robotic limbs

The success of a major medical experiment brings hope for thousands of patients with motor dysfunction, which may make it possible for them to use robotic arms and legs with their minds and improve their quality of life.

The world's first intrusive brain-machine interface experiment on non-human primates proved successful in Beijing on Thursday. It achieved brain control of a mechanical arm through an invasive brain-machine interface implanted in the monkey's brain.

This experiment, co-conducted by Nankai University in Tianjin, the Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital and Shanghai HeartCare Medical Technology Co, is of great significance for advancing research in the field of brain science and marks China's brain-machine interface technology joining the international leading ranks, experts said.

Brain-machine interface technology can convert brain signals into control commands, helping patients with movement disorders such as stroke and ALS, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, to interact with external devices.

Experts attach an invasive brainwave sensor to the blood vessel wall of a monkey's brain without the need for craniotomy, allowing intracranial brain-wave signals to be collected. Compared to traditional invasive and non-invasive brain-machine interfaces, it achieves both safety and recognition stability.

According to professor Duan Feng from Nankai University, the experiment will help promote the upgrading of the medical industry and create a national brand of high-end medical equipment through the combination of medicine and engineering. In the future, there will be broad market prospects in the field of brain disease medical rehabilitation.

Ma Yongjie, a neurosurgeon at Beijing-based Xuanwu Hospital of the Capital Medical University, who participated in the project, told Beijing Daily that previous invasive experiments implant electrodes into nearby areas of the cerebral cortex so that brain-wave signals could be the most precise. However, it requires a craniotomy and could cause severe damage to the human body such as inflammation and rejection.

Other non-invasive experiments collect brain-wave signals through the scalp, but signal quality is poor.

Yang Cheng in Tianjin contributed to this story.