People paralysed by spinal injuries may one day be helped by brain implants that can seek out and detect the firing of single neurons. In an experiment on monkeys, the implants have restored muscle control to animals that had been temporarily paralysed with anaesthetic.
A spinal injury or stroke can cause paralysis by blocking signals from the motor cortex to the muscles it controls. Despite the injury, the motor cortex’s neurons remain active, and experiments in other monkeys have shown that it is possible to decode the signals generated by bunches of neurons and use them to control computer cursors…
