Doctors have recently made a spectacular discovery as they performed deep brain stimulation and awoke new nerve fibers in the spinal cord. This has been a breakthrough in spinal injury treatment because through this un-jacopard technique, paralyzed patients have been able to regain control over their leg muscles. From Sky News, two of the patients were allowed to walk a few feet and even use the stairs after the electrodes were implanted in their brains.
Breakthrough in Spinal Cord Technology Helps Paralyzed Patients Walk Again
One of the patients, Wolfgang Geiger, 54 years old, had been paralyzed from the waist down due to a skiing accident in 2006. Until a few years ago, he used a wheelchair; after having the brain implants two years ago, he underwent vigorous physical rehabilitation to be able to walk. This was a rehabilitation that resulted in improvement and hikes in his motor skills and activities of daily living.
Geiger also talked about his experiences, adding, “If I want, I can walk a little, and I can go up and down stairs. If there’s something I need in the kitchen where I can stand, then I tell myself, ‘I can do this myself.' He has faith in the newly developed technology and wishes someday he does not require a wheelchair to move around again. It is therefore a dream come true as far as he is concerned.
Neuroscientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) have created it. In their prior works they explored animals like rats, so they had prior conceptions about the wires in the brain. Thanks to artificial intelligence, they managed to identify the neurons that are responsible for the coordination of movement, which creates a basis for this revolutionary treatment.
This achievement raises a new light for the spinal injury, paralyzing that has been seen to bring a new dawn for rehabilitating spinal cord injury patients. Further development of the technology may help the lives of many other people by helping them find ways to walk and become independent again.
New Brain Stimulation Discovery Helps Paralyzed Patients Walk
Scientists concentrated their attention on the hypothalamus—a small area of the brain, which is crucial for its functioning. They dissected their own working area and found an adjacent region that is important for walking, which they did not take seriously at first. However, after passing through a series of tests and achieving positive results through experiments on rodents, the discoverers announced their achievements, published in Nature Medicine.
To begin with, the Swiss team who had practiced using the technique on rodents proceeded to try the same technique on humans. The method, which is based on deep brain stimulation, is already applied to controlling tremors for patients with Parkinson’s disease. The knowledge of this procedure was useful in modifying such an approach for patients with spinal cord injuries in order to gain movement.
Another important benefit is that the whole procedure can be performed when the patient is consciously alert. This means that the surgeons can control the signal delivered within the operating theater, thereby placing the electrodes in the right area of the brain.
Dr. Jocelyn Bloch, who conducted the surgeries at the University of Lausanne Hospital, remembered one of the trials and wanted to share the following story. ‘I remember when we put the electrode in and started with the stimulation, the first patient said, I feel my legs,' she said. When we increase the stimulation, she agrees by saying, ‘I feel that I want to walk.’.
This finding brings a fresh lease of life for paralysis patients as the study demonstrates how control over movement may be regained through brain stimulation. Over the course of the investigation, other treatments may be discovered that open up better ways of enhancing the mobility of patients with spinal cord injuries and subsequently, their quality of life.
Brain Region Discovery Brings New Hope for Paralyzed Patients
The researchers think this lateral hypothalamic zone is an important relay area for controlling the other areas of the brain to conduct electrical impulses through the remaining good nerves as a result of spinal cord injury. In light of this discovery, it may be that there are other pathways to recovery that were not yet recognized.
In his comments, the senior neuroscientist of the group, Professor Gregory Curtin, stressed the role of this brain region in restoration. He said that it was established ‘the brain is the organ on which recovery from paralysis truly depends.’ A small previously undiscovered region of the brain was found to relay sensations and signals for walking through intact neural pathways and improve neuro-recovery.
Despite the fact that the two patients in the study have not been discharged, the mobility has improved as they can now walk short distances using a walking stick. This progress will therefore be an important landmark in showing that even in the worst of injuries, which is the spinal cord injury, there is hope of getting well if the right thing is done.
Surgically implanted electrodes are conceptualized and designed by the team at EPFL: movement can be restored through the availability of specialized implants in the spinal cord. These implants complement brain stimulation and may form a basis of treatments in the future to help spinal cord injury patients become mobile.
In the future, the researchers are hopeful that applying the technique of spinal and brain stimulation will enhance the process by which stroke patients regain their mobility. To achieve this, they intend to help patients achieve improved ability to walk longer and faster distances, thus giving many spine injury patients a glimmer of hope of walking again.
