BW: Who have you worked with to get where you are today in your research?
MN: The nature of our work means that we’re not just asking for input from neurophysiologists, we’re also working with computer scientists, technical engineers, neurologists, and neurosurgeons, as well as experts in the field of robotics. With something like this, you cannot work in isolation.
BW: What applications do you think your research has?
MN: The main application is rehabilitation for severely handicapped people. What you’re doing is providing a tool for patients who really have no other option if they want to walk or move autonomously. It would be a last-resort therapy, however, because the patient would have to undergo surgery to have a cortical implant put inside their brain. But because you are dealing with people who are bedridden, they are paralyzed from the neck down, this drastic measure — of implanting something in the brain to connect the cells there with a robotic vest or suit — is justified.
BW: Can this technology be used for “evil”?
MN: Although people talk about “mind control,” or using this kind of knowledge for war or other military purposes, I don’t see that as realistic. The ethical implications of doing invasive surgery to put in cortical implants to a soldier’s brain would rule that out as an option. This is for handicapped people and will make their lives better. That’s the goal.
BW: How long will it take, do you think, until the robotic suit and the brain implants are available to the general public?
MN: Our plan is to work on testing what the monkeys have been able to do on humans now. We know it’s possible, but we need to show that in a controlled laboratory setting. As part of our Walk Again Project, we have a plan for 2014, for the next World Cup in Brazil, my home. We plan to have two quadriplegic teenagers walk onto the pitch to perform the kickoff. We’re working together with teams from Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, and the U.S. to make this happen. [Editor’s note: It happened.]
This, we hope, will highlight the possibilities of what science can achieve when people work together and encourage the world’s medical tech companies to invest in the system, allowing it to be produced more cheaply. The first prototype will cost millions of dollars, that’s the way it is with first prototypes. But as we learn more and people get involved — on the technical side and the manufacturing side — the product would get cheaper and cheaper, eventually being offered in hospitals to those who need it.
BW: What’s next?
MN: After we’ve successfully seen quadri- and paraplegics walk and be able to move their limbs to do things like grasp a glass, pick up a book, I’d like to look at the possibility of being able to communicate brain to brain. If the brain cells are capable of giving and receiving information that are fed to it, then it may be possible for people to understand each other without speech or sight. Our brains could communicate with each other just by thinking. It could also enhance our understanding or knowledge of other places, for example — you could, in theory, know what it feels like to stand on top of Everest or to walk on the moon. These are the things that are possible if we can learn how to live beyond the boundaries our physical bodies create for us.
This article was first published in Brain World Magazine’s Winter 2012 issue.
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