A man who is almost completely paralysed from the neck down was able to walk using an exoskeleton (外骨骼) suit he controls with his mind. It can't yet let him walk independently - the suit hangs from an overhead belt to stop him falling - but the advance is a step, towards this goal.
Several groups are working on ways to let people with spinal cord (脊髓) injuries regain control over their bodies by reading their thoughts. So far, the most common method has been to insert extremely thin electrodes (电极) into the brain.
But this involves wires entering the skull, which could let in an infection(感染). The functioning of the electrodes also gradually worsens over the following months as they get covered with cells that form a kind of tissue.
To get round these problems, Alim Louis Benabid at the University of Grenoble Alpes and his colleagues placed two-centimetre discs of skull, one on either side of a man's head, with brain sensors that have electrodes on their underside.
The researchers started by asking the man, known as Thibault, to have several brain scans so they could map which areas became active when he thought about walking or moving his arms.
After inserting the sensors, Thibault practised using them, first by trying to move an image shaped like the exoskeleton on a computer. After this, he was put into the suit and he learned to make it start walking forwards, while supported from overhead. “I felt like the first man on the moon," says Thibault. He also learned to use the suit's arms for increasingly difficult tasks, such as moving his hands in different directions, reaching out to targets and using both hands at the same time.
The team's next goal is to make the exoskeleton self-balancing. This will require faster computation speed, says Benabid. However, not all of the project has gone smoothly. Before Thibault, another person was given the implants (植入) , but they stopped working within a few seconds of being turned on, due to a technical fault. This has now been fixed and three more people are set to test the system.
It is highly promising that Thibault's implants are still working after 27 months, says Ravi Vaidyanathan of Imperial College London.“Obviously it has a long way to go before it can be generally used, but this is a key step.”
8. What's the final purpose of the exoskeleton suit?
A.To control patients' mind. | B.To cure spinal cord injuries. |
C.To help people who fall often. | D.To give the disabled physical support. |
9. Why did researchers put two discs of skull on Thibault's head?
A.To improve the brain activity. | B.To reduce the risk of infection. |
C.To get round the cost problems. | D.To make the suit more sensitive. |
10. What did Thibault do while practising the improved suit?
A.He walked forwards and backwards. | B.He used his arm to touch the sensors. |
C.He moved his head in front of a computer. | D.He tried to use his hands at the same time. |
11. What did Ravi Vaidyanathan say about the new-version suit?
A.It still has some technical faults. | B.It is steady and self-balancing. |
C.It will be generally used soon. | D.It has improved greatly. |