Intel Hopes To Use AI To Help Paralyzed Patients Regain Movement Again

We’ve seen AI used in the medical industry before, where thanks to the use of the algorithms and machine learning, it can help doctors detect diseases in patients that they might have otherwise overlooked. Now it seems that Intel wants to leverage AI and take it one step further by potentially help paralyzed patients walk again.

Working together with researchers from Brown University, they have put together a project that aims to restore movement and bladder control to patients who have been paralyzed due to spinal cord related injuries. This is due to the fact that while the human body can regrow and heal certain parts of itself, it is unable to regenerate severed nerve fibers, meaning that the electrical impulses that are sent from the brain will not be able to reach the muscles to get them to move.

So with this research project, what they are hoping to achieve is to use AI to help the electrical impulses from the brain to allow the severed nerves to communicate in real-time, which in turn could potentially lead to paralyzed patients moving again.

According to David Borton, assistant professor of engineering at Brown University, “A spinal cord injury is devastating, and little is known about how remaining circuits around the injury may be leveraged to support rehabilitation and restoration of lost function. Listening for the first time to the spinal circuits around the injury and then taking action in real time with Intel’s combined AI hardware and software solutions will uncover new knowledge about the spinal cord and accelerate innovation toward new therapies.”

Tyler Lee
Categories: Medical
Tags: AI (Artificial Intelligence), Health, Intel