A team led by China’s Nankai University has completed what it calls the world’s first human trial of a brain-computer interface (BCI) implanted via blood vessels, helping a paralysed patient regain limb movement.
Unlike the open-skull approach of Elon Musk’s US-based neurotechnology company Neuralink, the Nankai University method reportedly reduces risk and shortens recovery time.
This research was led by Professor Duan Feng, vice dean of the university’s medical college, and the interventional surgery was performed at the Fujian Sanbo Funeng Brain Hospital, according to a university statement.
A 67-year-old male patient with left hemiplegia from a cerebral infarction six months earlier, who was showing slow rehabilitation progress, underwent BCI interventional implantation.
Hemiplegia is a paralysis affecting one side of the body.
Under high-precision digital subtraction angiography (DSA) imaging guidance, surgeons inserted a stent electrode into the patient’s intracranial vasculature, a network of blood vessels in the skull that supply blood to the brain, via a minimally invasive neck vein procedure, according to a university statement.
