Walk Again Project

Walk Again Project is an international, non-profit consortium led by Miguel Nicolelis, created in 2009 in a partnership between Duke University and the IINN/ELS, where researchers come together to find neuro-rehabilitation treatments for spinal cord injuries,[1][2][3] which pioneered the development and use of the brain–machine interface, including its non-invasive version,[4] with an EEG.

[16] Previously, in 2000, Nicolelis had already demonstrated, in a publication in Nature, the possibility of a computer decoding an ape's brain signals in order to move a robotic arm.

[25] That year, in his book “Beyond boundaries”, Nicolelis described his plan to make a patient take the opening kick of the FIFA World Cup,[20] in a project budgeted at R$33 million at the time (U$S 15,305,489.56 in 2013),[26] and funded by Finep.

[38] The initial contact with FIFA was made in 2012, but the plan to give the inaugural kick, which would even involve the patient getting up from his wheelchair and crossing 25 meters of the pitch, was abandoned by the entity.

Eight paraplegic patients, who had lost all movement in their lower limbs due to spinal cord injuries, experienced a partial neurological recovery after 12 months of training with virtual reality, a robot, and an exoskeleton.

[4][51] In 2019, in a study published in Scientific Reports, three paraplegic patients tested the “brain–muscle interface”, where small electrical charges in their legs helped them to move without an exoskeleton.

[4][52][53][2] In a study published on May 1, 2021, in Scientific Reports, two patients suffering from chronic paraplegia were shown to be able to walk on 70% of their own weight, in addition to taking 4580 steps,[1][53] also with the help of non-invasive techniques.

[5] A study published in 2022 demonstrated the superior clinical effect that the use of non-invasive BMI has compared to putting patients on robots that don't have the same technology.