As I learn about the latest discovery by the Weizmann Institute, I smile thinking that life is about to become sweeter for the paralyzed human beings whose lives have so far been, literally, entrapped by their bodies.

Usually, such patients have disabilities that range from quadriplegia to “locked–in syndrome” –where a person is completely paralyzed, save for eye blinks– but retain the ability to sniff with precision.

One famous case was the American “Superman”, Christopher Reeve, whose life was shattered as he participated in a horseback riding competition in the Jumping category, in Virginia. Reeve’s Thoroughbred, Eastern Express, balked at a rail jump, pitching his rider forward. Reeve’s hands were tangled in the horse’s bridle and he landed head first, fracturing the uppermost vertebrae in his spine. Reeve was instantly paralyzed from the neck down and unable to breathe. Prompt medical attention saved his life and delicate surgery stabilized the shattered C1–C2 vertebrae and literally reattached Reeve’s head to his spine. Upon regaining consciousness and realizing the gravity of his situation, Reeve wondered to his wife Dana if “maybe we should just let me go.” Whereupon Dana uttered the words that gave him the will to live: “But you’re still you and I love you.”

Millions of similarly paralyzed people in the world have lived a hopeless life condemned to depending on others for absolutely everything they needed to do. Until now. A significant part of those patients’ lives is about to change with real hope for their future.

Thanks to discoveries and inventions by Professor Noam Sobel, electronics engineers Dr. Anton Plotkin and Aharon Weissbrod, together with research student Lee Sela, all of Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science’s Department of Neurobiology, a unique device based on sniffing, inhaling and exhaling through the nose, might enable many disabled people to improve their mobility by navigating their wheelchairs themselves or even communicating with their loved ones.

A futuristic vision of the sniffing technology might even include the creation of a kind of a “third hand” to assist healthy surgeons or pilots.

Sniffing is a very precise motor skill that is controlled, in part, by the soft palate, which is the flexible divider that directs air in or out through the mouth or nose. That soft palate is controlled by several nerves that connect to it directly through the brain–case, and it is this close link that led Prof. Sobel and his scientific team to theorize that the ability to sniff, that is, to control soft palate movement, might be present and have been preserved even in the most acute cases of paralysis.

Furthermore, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has granted an aura of credibility to the idea, showing that a number of brain areas contribute to soft palate control. To crown it all, this imaging revealed a significant overlap between soft palate control and the language areas of the brain, hinting to the scientists that the use of sniffing to communicate might be learned intuitively. Interesting.

The mechanism of this new system identifies changes in air pressure inside the nostrils and translates them into electrical signals. The team tested the device on healthy volunteers as well as quadriplegics, and the results showed that patients can easily master the method. Users were able to navigate a wheelchair around a complex path or play a computer game with almost the speed and accuracy of a mouse or joystick.

With this critical information, scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, devised a new sniff controller, which uses tubes placed up the nose to measure sniff–triggered changes in nasal air pressure.

Testing the device was the next step. Healthy individuals were able to make it function. And, most importantly, in collaboration with Prof. Nachum Soroker of Loewenstein Hospital Rehabilitation center in Raanana, Israel, quadriplegics and locked-in patients tested the device and managed to navigate the electric wheelchair as efficiently as healthy individuals. They were also able to use the interface to write just as fast. A quadriplegic woman in her sixties who had not written anything in ten years can now use the sniff device and writes emails and surfs the internet… a whole new world for her.

Another patient, who had been paralyzed since a traffic accident 18years ago, was able to write that the sniffing device was much easier to use than one based on blinking. Another 10 quadriplegic patients were able to operate their computers and write messages through sniffing.

In addition to communication, the device can function as a sort of steering mechanism for wheelchairs: Two successive sniffs in tell it togo forward, two out mean reverse, out and then in turn it left, and in and out turn it right. After 15 minutes of practice, a subject who is paralyzed from the neck down managed to navigate a wheelchair through a complex route–sharp turns and all–as deftly as a non–disabled volunteer.

Sniffs can be in or out, strong or shallow, long or short; and this gives the device’s developers the opportunity to create a complex “language” with multiple signals. The new system is relatively inexpensive to produce, and simple and quick to learn to operate in comparison with other brain–machine interfaces.

The device had a 75% success rate among those volunteers tested.However, 25% of healthy participants were not able to voluntarily control their soft palates using sniff. However, the situation in quadriplegics or locked-in patients may be different, as usually the body tends to over–compensate when some of its parts cannot function.

Still, this device “may indeed help lots of people worldwide,” said study co-author Noam Sobel of Weizmann’s Olfaction Research Group. For starters, a low–tech sniff–based approach could prove much simpler to implement than using complex high–tech trying to control external objects via direct brain activity.

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of America describes in detail the new sniff–driven controller now being patented by the Weizmann Institute whose technology transfer arm, Yeda Research and Development Company, Ltd., is studying the possibilities for developing and distributing the much awaited invention.

So, as the world turns, and humanity seems at odds with themselves, in tiny Israel busy scientists at the Weizmann Institute, focus on tirelessly contributing to make this a better world for those who, rightfully so, expect better and more from Life.

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