## Does China's "North Brain No.1" Epidural BCI Actually Restore Walking After Complete Spinal Cord Injury?

**The short answer: in at least one documented case, yes — with major caveats.** Wang Zhiming, paralyzed from the navel down after a 2019 truck accident and rated ASIA-A (motor and sensory complete) at baseline, progressed to ASIA-C following the "North Brain No.1" [epidural](https://bciintel.com/glossary/epidural) [brain-computer interface](https://bciintel.com/glossary/brain-computer-interface) trial at Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, in Beijing. By early August 2026 — roughly 15 months post-implant — he was walking outside his home with braces and a walker, talking to his twin daughters as he moved. His bladder and bowel function also partially recovered. Separately, a retinal BCI implantation performed in May 2026 at Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital enabled a patient with near-total blindness from retinitis pigmentosa to recognize Chinese characters and objects after approximately three months of rehabilitation. Both cases are from small feasibility-stage clinical trials in China, not randomized controlled studies, and a Xuanwu Hospital neurosurgeon explicitly warned 36Kr that full recovery "is almost impossible" and that "not all patients will see therapeutic effects."

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## The Wang Zhiming Case: What Actually Happened Clinically

Wang Zhiming was 24 years old at the time of injury. Six years of traditional rehabilitation — acupuncture, electrotherapy, tuina — produced no measurable functional improvement, and he had been told by physicians that permanent wheelchair dependence was his prognosis.

In May 2025, he enrolled in the "North Brain No.1" epidural BCI clinical trial jointly run by Xuanwu Hospital and the Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders. According to the 36Kr report, he is described as **the world's first patient to receive combined treatment with epidural BCI, spinal cord electrical stimulation, and an exoskeleton robot simultaneously** — a trimodal intervention that distinguishes this case from prior epidural stimulation trials.

The mechanism works through motor imagery: Wang Zhiming imagines lifting a leg, the BCI detects the cortical intent signal, delivers an electrical stimulation pulse to the corresponding spinal segment, and the exoskeleton physically drives the limb through the intended motion. The system is explicitly [closed-loop](https://bciintel.com/glossary/closed-loop) in design — neural intent drives stimulation in real time.

The training timeline reported is instructive:

- **Day ~10 post-surgery:** Rehabilitation training begins; patient describes the first electrical stimulation sensation as "nerves reconnecting" — the first perceived leg sensation since injury
- **Month 3:** Able to take three consecutive steps per attempt
- **Month ~15 (August 2026):** Walking outdoors with braces, self-care for bladder and bowel function restored

The ASIA grade improvement from A to C is clinically significant. ASIA-A is defined as no motor or sensory function preserved in sacral segments S4–S5; ASIA-C means motor function is preserved below the neurological level and more than half of key muscles below that level have a muscle grade less than 3. This is not a full recovery — but it is a measurable, functionally meaningful change in a population where spontaneous improvement from ASIA-A at this time post-injury is extremely rare.

What the source does not provide: electrode specifications, implant depth, stimulation parameters, decoding accuracy metrics, or a trial registry number. Readers requiring those details will need to locate the primary trial documentation directly through Chinese clinical trial registries or published literature.

For those tracking the intersection of BCI-driven motor restoration and robotic exoskeleton systems, [humanoidintel.ai](https://humanoidintel.ai) covers the robotics side of these human-machine integration trials in parallel.

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## The Retinal BCI Case: Vision Restoration in Retinitis Pigmentosa

The second case reported involves "Lingling," a 40-year-old woman who has been blind for nearly 20 years due to retinitis pigmentosa. In May 2026, ophthalmologist Chen Yiqi at Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital performed a retinal BCI implantation. After approximately three months of rehabilitation training, she can now recognize some Chinese characters and objects — a functional threshold she could not reach before, as pre-surgery she had only minimal light perception under strong illumination.

The report does not name the specific device, specify electrode count on the retinal array, or identify the trial sponsor or registry. This limits independent verification. However, retinal prosthetics at this functional threshold — character recognition — represent a meaningful benchmark in the visual neuroprosthetics field, where the clinical bar has historically been set at light/dark discrimination or large-object detection.

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## The Expert Check: Managing Patient Expectations in Chinese BCI Trials

The most analytically important voice in the 36Kr piece is Wang Yihe, a neurosurgeon at Xuanwu Hospital directly involved in these procedures. His framing deserves attention from both clinicians and investors:

> "This is almost impossible. In addition, not all patients will see therapeutic effects."

His "brick phone vs. smartphone" analogy is a calibrated attempt to set durable expectations: current BCI technology may offer real but limited benefit, and patients who defer treatment for future iterations are making a rational choice. This is a notably candid public statement from a clinician at the implanting institution — not a skeptic from outside.

The pattern he describes — patients expecting complete restoration of normal function — is a consent and expectation-management problem the entire BCI field faces globally, not just in China. It maps directly onto challenges documented in Western trials, where patient-reported disappointment can follow even objectively successful outcomes if pre-surgical expectations were not properly calibrated.

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## What This Means for the Broader BCI Industry

**China is running human trials at scale and publicizing patient outcomes.** The "North Brain No.1" trial represents a distinct technical approach from the intracortical arrays dominating Western headlines. Epidural placement reduces surgical risk compared to fully implanted intracortical devices, though it typically captures less granular neural signal than subdural or parenchymal electrodes. Whether the functional gains Wang Zhiming achieved are attributable primarily to the BCI decoding, the spinal cord stimulation, the exoskeleton-driven physical rehabilitation, or their combination is not answerable from this source alone — and that question matters enormously for clinical protocol design.

For Western BCI developers and regulators, the pace of Chinese human trials is worth tracking. The combination of epidural BCI + spinal stimulation + exoskeleton is an approach that overlaps with work by [ONWARD Medical](https://bciintel.com/companies/onward-medical) in the West, which has pursued epidural electrical stimulation for spinal cord injury. The trimodal combination reported here has not, to the knowledge grounded in this source, been reported in Western trials at this stage.

**Clinical translation timeline analysis:** Cases like Wang Zhiming's generate intense patient demand — the 36Kr report notes that "many fellow patients reached out" after he posted walking videos online. This demand pressure, combined with the early-stage nature of the trials, creates a tension that regulatory frameworks in both China and Western markets will need to manage carefully as BCI moves from feasibility studies toward broader enrollment.

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## Key Takeaways

- Wang Zhiming, enrolled in China's "North Brain No.1" epidural BCI trial at Xuanwu Hospital in May 2025, improved from ASIA-A to ASIA-C spinal cord injury classification and is walking outdoors with braces by August 2026 — approximately 15 months post-implant
- He is described as the world's first patient to receive simultaneous epidural BCI, spinal cord electrical stimulation, and exoskeleton robot treatment
- A separate retinal BCI implantation at Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital in May 2026 enabled a near-totally blind patient to recognize Chinese characters after ~3 months of rehabilitation
- Xuanwu Hospital neurosurgeon Wang Yihe publicly cautioned that full recovery from BCI is "almost impossible" and that not all patients respond — a critical counterweight to the high-profile cases
- Both cases are small feasibility-stage trials; no randomized controlled data, device specifications, or trial registry numbers are available from this source
- The trimodal combination therapy (epidural BCI + spinal stimulation + exoskeleton) represents a technically distinct approach from Western intracortical BCI programs and warrants close monitoring by developers and regulators

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## Frequently Asked Questions

**What is the "North Brain No.1" BCI and who developed it?**
Based on the 36Kr report, "North Brain No.1" is an epidural [brain-computer interface](https://bciintel.com/glossary/brain-computer-interface) developed through a collaboration between Xuanwu Hospital (Capital Medical University) and the Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders. It is being evaluated in a clinical trial for spinal cord injury. Device specifications and trial registry details were not provided in the source.

**How does the epidural BCI differ from Neuralink's intracortical implant?**
An epidural BCI sits on the outer surface of the dura mater — the protective membrane over the brain or spinal cord — rather than penetrating brain tissue. This reduces surgical invasiveness and infection risk but generally captures lower-resolution neural signals than fully implanted intracortical arrays like those used by [Neuralink Corp](https://bciintel.com/companies/neuralink). The trade-off between signal quality and safety profile is a central design question in the field.

**Did Wang Zhiming make a full recovery?**
No. He improved from ASIA-A (complete motor and sensory loss) to ASIA-C (partial motor preservation) and can walk with a walker and braces, and has regained partial bladder and bowel control. His treating neurosurgeon explicitly stated that full recovery to normal health from BCI "is almost impossible."

**Is the retinal BCI used on Lingling commercially available?**
The source does not identify the device or its regulatory status. The surgery was performed in May 2026 in a clinical trial context. No commercial approval information was provided.

**Can patients with spinal cord injury currently enroll in these Chinese BCI trials?**
The source does not specify current enrollment status, eligibility criteria, or how to contact the trial teams. Wang Zhiming's case notes that he was evaluated for eligibility before enrollment; his ASIA-A classification and specific injury profile were factors. Interested patients or clinicians should consult Chinese clinical trial registries or contact Xuanwu Hospital directly.

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*This article reports on small feasibility-stage clinical trials conducted in China. Results from individual cases cannot be generalized to broader patient populations. Nothing in this article constitutes medical advice. Readers should consult qualified medical professionals regarding treatment options for spinal cord injury or visual impairment.*