Intel, Brown University to deploy AI to bridge the gap in neural circuitry of damaged spinal cord

Supported with a new grant of $6.3 million from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a team led by Brown University researchers will develop and test an “intelligent spinal interface” aimed at helping to restore limb movement and bladder control for people who have suffered spinal cord injuries. The idea is to record signals traveling down the spinal cord above an injury site and use them to drive electrical spinal stimulation below the lesion. At the same time, information coming up the cord from below will be used to drive stimulation above the injury. The device could potentially help to restore both volitional control of limbs muscles as well as feeling and sensation lost due to injury.

Over the next two years, the research team will work with Dr. Jared Fridley and the neurosurgery staff at Rhode Island Hospital to recruit volunteers with spinal cord injuries to be implanted with an experimental interface for a period of up to 29 days. The device will record and stimulate the spine as patients participate in standard physical therapy for spinal injuries.

You can read the entire article about this research HERE.