They do mention stroke in the writeup, but it would seem to me that this could only possibly help high functioning stroke patients. Since my brain control area for the hand is dead the current configuration to sense motor activity in the motor cortex would not work.
Neurorobotic hand exoskeleton restores grasp function to quadriplegics
A consortium of European scientists has successfully restored grasp
function to six quadriplegics using a non-invasive hybrid brain-neural
hand exoskeleton. The system was developed by researchers at the
University of Tübingen, Germany, The BioRobotics Institute at the Scuola
Superiore Sant’Anna, Italy, and the Guttmann Institute in Spain. The
study participants were able, for example, to eat and drink
independently at a restaurant. While it was commonly assumed that
outside-the-lab brain-machine interface(BMI)-based restoration of hand
function would require surgical implantation of neural electrodes, the
study – now featured in the inaugural issue of Science Robotics – used
electric brain activity recorded from the scalp, thus avoiding any
surgical procedure.
The Tübingen researchers say the new approach will significantly
improve quality of life after high cervical spinal cord injury or
stroke. The system translates brain electric activity and eye movements
into hand opening and closing motions, restoring intuitive grasp
function to an almost normal level, the study shows. Thanks to portable
and wireless hardware integrated into a wheelchair, participants could
freely move and use the system in their everyday life environment.
Surjo Soekadar, the responsible physician and lead author of the
study, says the technology can be adapted to do even more: "Next, we are
planning the development of intelligent, context-sensitive and
cosmetically unobtrusive neurorobotic systems which patients can mount
on their bodies entirely unassisted”.
Besides the immediate improvement in the ability to perform
activities of daily living as shown by the European research consortium,
recent clinical studies suggest that repeated use of such
brain-controlled exoskeletons could induce neurological recovery after
spinal cord injury or stroke. This BMI-related neuroplasticity, as Dr.
Soekadar underlines, may also become a powerful tool to treat
neuropsychiatric disorders, such as depression or cognitive disorders
which currently represent the third leading cause of global
disability-adjusted life years (DALY), i.e. the total number of years
lost to illness, disability, or premature death. While large-scale
clinical trials will be required for further validation, the system
introduced by Dr. Soekadar and his colleagues may now pave the way for
such long-term and out-of-the-lab studies.
Attached files
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Dr. Surjo R. Soekadar (left) with a study participant. Photo: Surjo R. Soekadar
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