Thought-controlled movement

The stentrode. This tiny device is the result of a collaboration of 39 brilliant minds from 16 departments across the University of Melbourne’s medicine, science and engineering faculties.

Smaller than a paperclip, the stentrode, implanted into a blood vessel next to the brain’s motor cortex, will one day allow paraplegics to move with the power of thought.

Once implanted, it picks up signals that would normally be sent to a person’s limbs to create movement.

Instead, the signal will be sent to a computer, which will then transmit it to a robotic exoskeleton attached to the…