Here's how VR helped a paralysed woman move her legs after 13 years

You may have never thought that Virtual Reality can actually help people. Eight paralyzed people were able to regain feeling in their legs with a virtual reality simulation based robotic system.

The study was conducted at Duke University in North Carolina under Miguel Nicolelis with eight people suffering from permanent paralysis for five or more years. In fact two people who participated in the study had been paralysed for more than a decade.

All eight participants went under training for two or more hours each day for an entire year wearing a robotic suit which had a cap with 11 electrodes to map brain activity. With the help of a virtual reality environment they were all taught to work a digital avatar and imagine walking in the simulation where they could see the legs of their avatar.

This regular training re-invigorated the areas of their brain which control movement and set the idea that they had working lower limbs. Later, an exoskeleton was used to support weight of the trainees and help with posture, balance. Then a miracle happened. After 13 months of training, a woman was able to move her legs for the first time in 13 years. She was able to voluntarily move her legs with her body weight supported by a harness.

With Virtual Reality based training most participants experienced better bladder control, bowel function with reduced dependence on laxatives and catheters. The training actually helped improve their life by reducing life-threatening infections. The eight people have been in the programme for more than 2 years now and Nikolesis thinks that the brain-machine interface helped re-invigorate spinal nerves that had gone dormant. He will be continuing with the study to find better and faster ways of treatment.

Thrilled by the results Nikolelis added:

Until now, nobody has seen recovery of these functions in a patient so many years after being diagnosed with complete paralysis.

Source: Nature | Via: New Scientist