To celebrate the exact six years of the Master's Degree in Neuroengineering at Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neurosciences (IIN-ELS), officially started on August 1, 2013, the neuroscientist and founder of Santos Dumont Institute (ISD), Miguel Nicolelis, gave a lecture on 08/01/2019 to the institution's internal audience, on the topic “Brain-Machine Interfaces: From basic science to neurological recovery”.

During his speech, Miguel explained the trajectory of research in this area and recalled the unprecedented nature of the studies back in 1999, when no one imagined that, years later, in 2014, a patient with a spinal cord injury would kick off the World Cup in Football from an exoskeleton.

Nicolelis cited the unpredictability of science, mentioning that his initial studies were related to research into neural coding using multiple brain recordings. Over time and with further work, it was possible to discover a therapy for patients with spinal cord injuries using Brain-Machine Interfaces. The researcher said that from these studies it became clear how malleable the brain can be to the point of assimilating robotic parts and incorporating them as an extension of the body, which was proven by research carried out with injured patients and whose results are published in several articles scientific papers in international journals. 

The neuroscientist said, finally, that he is very happy to end his lectures around the world with an aerial image of the Brain Campus, headquarters of the IIN-ELS in Macaíba (RN), thus showing where the idea of creating the educational project came from. , health and research guiding ISD: “He (the project) appeared here and has the copyright potiguar. I hope you remember this every day that you have to face the difficulties that any Brazilian scientist faces, because you have something to be proud of in the DNA of this institution”, concluded Nicolelis.