By creating an artificial connection between nerve cells in the brain and muscles, scientists say they are restoring voluntary movement to the once-paralyzed limbs, according to a report from the in Seattle. The rerouting effectively bypasses damaged nerves in subjects with spinal cord injuries, which generally damage nerves but leave muscles and brain tissue unharmed.

Research that involves making new connections in living brains and even connecting robots to living brains has been gaining a lot of attention in the past year.

Less than a year ago, a scientist at the announced that he had successfully . , an associate professor at the university, told Computerworld last year that the research running both technology and living organic tissue. He also said that the hybrid systems could be used to make people with spinal cord injuries mobile again.

And in January, an international group of scientists successfully used a . , a professor of neurobiology at and lead researcher on the project, said at the time the research may only be a few years away from helping paralyzed people walk again by enabling them to use their thoughts to control exoskeletons attached to their bodies.

In the most recent study out of the University of Washington, scientists conducted a proof of concept experiment by directly stimulating muscles using neuron activity in the motor cortex, which is the part of the brain that controls limb movement.