Spinal Cord Injury

A patient with chronic complete spinal cord injury improved from AIS A to AIS C and regained partial voluntary movement after one year of combined neuromodulation and conventional rehabilitation. The 53-year-old man had a T9 injury and received sequential spinal cord electrical stimulation, BCI training, motor cortex stimulation, and peripheral magnetic stimulation of both iliopsoas muscles, alongside 12 months of rehabilitation. His left lower limb motor score rose from 0 to 6, spontaneous defecation and penile erection returned, and his neuropathic pain score fell from 8 to 0. This uncontrolled case suggests a possible association with functional recovery but cannot distinguish the contributions of individual interventions or exclude spontaneous neurological recovery.

Motor imagery brain-computer interfaces decode neural signals associated with imagined movements to enable communication between the brain and external devices. A review surveys applications in stroke, spinal cord injury, and virtual reality rehabilitation, focusing on integration with EEG, neurofeedback, functional electrical stimulation, robotic devices, and artificial intelligence. It identifies weak signals relative to noise, substantial individual differences, and lengthy training as continuing challenges. The author highlights deep learning, wearable devices, personalized rehabilitation programs, and clinical validation as development directions. The article reviews technologies and applications rather than reporting a new clinical efficacy trial.

Peking University Third Hospital, a top-tier (Grade 3A) general hospital in Beijing whose neurosurgery department is one of its key specialties, is taking part in a clinical trial of a Chinese-developed invasive brain-computer interface (BCI), neurosurgeons Yang Jun and Yu Tao wrote in the 16th issue of China Hospital CEO magazine. The trial enrolls patients with spinal cord injury and relies on a multidisciplinary team (MDT) to restore hand function after implantation. Invasive BCIs read neural signals through electrodes placed inside the skull or on the cortical surface, so surgery and rehabilitation depend on close coordination among neurosurgery, rehabilitation and imaging departments. The disclosure marks one step in Chinese hospitals' clinical validation of domestic systems. Public information has not named the system or disclosed enrollment, follow-up milestones or primary endpoints, and no efficacy or safety data have been released.

A new clinical trial at Brazil's Santos Dumont Institute will test whether brain-computer interface (BCI)-guided functional electrical stimulation (FES) can improve muscle activation and gait in people with spinal cord injury. The institute is a well-known Brazilian center for neurorehabilitation research. Registered on ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT07768930 and first posted on August 17, 2026, the study is active but not yet recruiting. The intervention involves ankle dorsiflexion rehabilitation: patients wear an EEG cap, the system detects motor-imagery-related brain signals in real time, and when an intention is detected, it triggers FES to stimulate the tibialis anterior muscle to assist ankle dorsiflexion. Primary outcomes are improvements in muscle activation patterns and gait kinematics. The trial is at an early stage, with enrollment details not yet disclosed.

Surgeons in eastern China have implanted a brain-computer interface in a man who has been unable to move his limbs for more than two years. Eight ultraflexible electrodes sit 4 mm into his cortex, wired to a chip mounted on the skull. It is the first invasive BCI operation performed in Shandong province, and the patient now begins up to six months of training to control devices by thought.

The University of Aveiro in Portugal has registered a study (NCT07732868) testing a brain-machine interface protocol that pairs virtual reality with sensory feedback, visual, auditory and tactile, and/or an exoskeleton in people with spinal cord injury. Participants attend 12 monitored sessions, one a week, each lasting roughly one to two hours, moving a virtual avatar through motor imagery while non-invasive EEG records brain activity. The study focuses on changes in brain activity that track clinical improvement and on how information moves between brain regions, and it collects age, sex, injury level and type, time since injury, functional grade and neuropathic pain; it is at the registration stage with no results yet.

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) has launched a clinical study evaluating the preliminary safety and effectiveness of a cortical recording device (ECoG) combined with lumbar targeted epidural electrical stimulation (EES) to restore voluntary lower-limb motor function in participants with chronic spinal cord injury and mobility impairment. The study aims to establish a direct bridge between motor intention and the spinal cord below the lesion, potentially improving or restoring voluntary leg control and promoting neurological recovery when combined with neurorehabilitation.

The University of Miami has opened a clinical trial testing whether a brain-computer interface can decode upper-limb motor intention from EEG or ECoG and use it both to trigger epidural spinal cord stimulation (ESCS) and to control assistive devices in people with spinal cord injury. The study was first posted on August 1, 2024, and is recruiting.

The University of Miami is recruiting participants with incomplete spinal cord injury for a walking rehabilitation trial combining a brain-computer interface with transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation. The trial is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT06406855 and is currently recruiting.