Three patients with chronic paraplegia were able to walk thanks to precise electrical stimulation of their spinal cords via a wireless implant. In a double study published in Nature and Nature Neuroscience, Swiss scientists Grégoire Courtine (EPFL and CHUV/Unil) and Jocelyne Bloch (CHUV/Unil) show that after a few months of training, the patients were able...
Tag: <span>Paralysis</span>
Post
New technology could help people with paralysis to speak again
Scientists are close to devising technology that uses the brain’s encoding and muscle control commands to allow people who have lost the power of speech due to paralysis to talk again. Image: People who cannot speak due to paralysis may soon be able to relearn the skill. Recent research led by Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, finds that the brain generates speech sounds in a similar...
Post
Paralyzed mice walk again after treatment restores neurons’ “Yin and Yang” balance
A spinal cord injury doesn’t need to be complete to cause paralysis – even with some nerves left intact, messages from the brain still don’t seem to get through. While investigating why that’s the case, researchers at the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center of Boston Children’s Hospital determined that a certain drug helps balance the Yin and Yang...
Post
Atomic-level study reveals why rare disorder causes sudden paralysis
A rare genetic disorder in which people are suddenly overcome with profound muscle weakness is caused by a hole in a membrane protein that allows sodium ions to leak across cell membranes, researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle have found. The voltage sensor has two cavities (purple) that do not connect. Mutations...
Post
Marr’s mini miracle: After a stroke left him partially paralysed, Andrew Marr feared he’d never walk normally again. Then a US doctor turned him upside-down – and, as he movingly reveals, it’s sent his spirits soaring
Andrew Marr has been filmed as he trains his body following his 2013 stroke He wanted to promote the work of stroke charities which support those affected The journalist has had to ‘struggle with physiotherapy’ but wanted to show what it is like to recover from a stroke The consequences aren’t generally obvious on television....
Post
ME & MY OPERATION: The pioneering stem cell procedure that can restore movement after a stroke
Tens of thousands of people each year are left paralysed to some degree by a stroke. Billy Elder, 63, from Renfrew, Glasgow, is one of the first people to receive a new stem cell treatment to restore movement, as he tells OONA MASHTA . . THE PATIENT One day in August last year I was...
Post
Understanding REM: When dreams and paralysis are uncoupled
During rapid eye movement sleep, most of us slip into a state of paralysis. Individuals with rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, however, do not. Breaking research sheds light on the neural mechanisms behind this fascinating yet disruptive condition. What is REM? Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is a natural part of the sleep cycle;...
- 1
- 2