Walking is a simple matter, but for paralyzed patients, it is an unattainable dream. The reporter learned from Zhongshan Hospital affiliated with Fudan University that the first batch of paralyzed patients have achieved assisted re standing and walking through a new generation of implantable brain spinal interface technology for spinal cord injury patients. As an "information highway" connecting the brain and peripheral nervous system, if the spinal cord is damaged, the commands issued by the brain cannot be transmitted to the muscles, and patients lose their ability to move independently. Due to the irreversibility of nerve damage, the effectiveness of current treatment methods for patients with spinal cord injury is limited. Until recent years, studies have shown that spinal epidural electrical stimulation can reactivate neuromuscular activity, significantly promoting motor rehabilitation after spinal cord injury. The recently developed brain spinal interface technology by Jia Fumin's team at the Institute of Brain Intelligence Science and Technology at Fudan University uses minimally invasive surgery to implant electrode chips into the brain and spinal cord of paralyzed patients, cleverly building a "neural bypass" between the brain and spinal cord. The electrode chip accurately collects the motion signals emitted by the brain, and then uses algorithms to deeply decode the signals, converting them into electrical stimuli of specific frequency and intensity. These electrical stimuli act on the nerve tissue beneath the damaged spinal cord by implanting electrode chips in the corresponding areas of the spinal cord, activating lower limb directive activities. As a result, patients can autonomously control their muscles and restore their lower limb standing and walking functions. Two years ago, Mr. Lin suffered a thoracic vertebral fracture, vertebral dislocation, and cerebral hemorrhage due to an accidental fall, and had to rely on a wheelchair to live. Last October, he registered and became the first patient to undergo a one-time stereotactic intracranial electrode implantation and spinal nerve stimulation electrode implantation on January 8th of this year. Ding Jing, director of the Department of Neurology at Zhongshan Hospital affiliated with Fudan University, said that after the surgery, Mr. Lin's body changed rapidly in days: on the first day, his right leg showed slow flexion; On the third day, achieve both lower limb movements under autonomous brain control; Starting from the 8th day, standing and leg lifting training will be conducted with the assistance of a stand; On the 10th day, gradually adapt to walking mode under gravity suspension support and achieve autonomous control of bilateral lower limb strides; On the 14th day, the motor reaction ability gradually improved, and the right leg was able to lift and cross moving obstacles; On the 15th day, independently using a standing stand to walk more than 5 meters under suspension; On the 49th day, he was able to walk independently using a walking aid under suspension... Following Mr. Lin, Mr. Zhao from Hebei and Mr. Wen from Shandong successfully underwent surgery on February 5th and 25th respectively. They also achieved brain controlled leg lifting by turning on the machine for one hour the day after surgery. It is reported that a paper published by a Swiss team in 2023 claimed to connect neural pathways through data collection, electrical stimulation, neural decoding, and other means, allowing patients to autonomously control paralyzed muscles. Although this is basically consistent with the principle of the Jiafumin team, the methods and effects are quite different: the Swiss approach involves bilateral craniotomy of the patient, implantation of two chips, and a wound size of two palms, which can easily lead to infection. In addition, surgeries on the brain and spinal cord are performed at intervals of up to 2 years. The Jiafumin team adopts minimally invasive surgery, implanting two electrode chips with a diameter of about 1 millimeter into the motor brain area. The surgery for the brain and spinal cord can be completed in about 4 hours at a time. This is because the integration of multiple devices previously used for EEG acquisition and spinal cord stimulation into one skull implanted micro device not only greatly reduces surgical trauma, but also achieves integration of acquisition and stimulation, improving the stability and efficiency of EEG signal acquisition. What excited the team even more was the discovery of the role of the brain spinal interface in neural remodeling in the subjects. In the study conducted by the Swiss team, neural remodeling effects were observed around 6 months after the implantation of the spinal interface, allowing patients to autonomously control paralyzed muscles without external stimulation. Mr. Lin showed signs of neural remodeling less than 2 weeks after surgery. It's like when the 'road' between the brain and the spinal cord is connected, the nerves come back to life like spring Ding Jing said that the first patient also had many pleasing changes: the spinal injury felt a downward shift in the plane, the feet would heat up, sweat, and have a tingling sensation, and the leg muscles would contract when standing. According to statistics, the current number of spinal cord injury patients in China is about 3.74 million, with an annual increase of about 90000 spinal cord injury patients. The new breakthrough in brain spinal interface technology is bringing new hope to paralyzed patients. Jia Fumin, a young associate researcher at the Institute of Brain Intelligence Science and Technology at Fudan University, admitted that it is still difficult to achieve "wide coverage" at present. On the one hand, there are relatively few mature electrode channels available for implantation in the human body, and the amount of information is limited. How to achieve real-time and accurate decoding of human motion is the biggest challenge faced by the team; On the other hand, everyone's spinal cord physiological structure is different, and human movement is very complex, with differences in EEG signals when standing or sitting and lifting legs. In addition, the currently developed brain spine interface devices are only suitable for adult patients, and patients participating in clinical trials need to undergo 5 to 7 hours of rehabilitation training per day, requiring active cooperation from patients and their families. Next, the Jiafumin team plans to continue collaborating with clinical units to carry out more clinical concept validation work on the brain spine interface, accumulate more real data, and further iterate algorithms. At the same time, we will improve the skull implanted brain spine interface micro device and prepare for product registration and clinical trials. (New Society)