China has approved a brain implant for people with severe paralysis to help restore their hand movements. The brain–computer interface (BCI) is the first in the world to be available for wider use outside of clinical trials.
The device, developed by Neuracle Medical Technology in Shanghai, China, was authorized last week by the National Medical Products Administration. It will be available to people aged between 18 and 60 years old who have paralysis that affects all of their limbs and is caused by an injury to the neck area of the spinal cord.
BCI technology is important because there are no effective ways to treat people who have spinal-cord injuries, says Chen Liang, a neurosurgeon at Huashan Hospital at Fudan University in Shanghai, who was involved in the clinical trials of the device, called NEO.
The approval is a milestone for the whole field of BCI research, says Zhengwu Liu, an electrical engineer at the University of Hong Kong who has collaborated with the NEO team.
The research team behind the device has up to 18 months of data showing that the BCI system works. “That kind of long-term evidence is rare in this field, and I think that’s a key reason why this approval was possible,” Liu adds.
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