"Three patients with spinal cord injury walk through electrical stimulation"

Three paralyzed patients return to walk thanks to a targeted electrical stimulation of the spinal cord, able to imitate the brain by ordering members to move. That's the news reported in an article published this week in Nature Neuroscience. the spinal cord injury they interrupt communication in the nervous system, leading to loss of neurological function and paralysis. Epidural electrical stimulation (EES) applied to the spinal cord restores locomotion in animal models of spinal cord injury, but until now, it was less effective in humans, for reasons that remain unclear.

This new protocol combines a lumbar spinal cord EES with a precise configuration and weight support system.
Grégoire Courtine and his colleagues at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at the Federal Institute of Technology of Switzerland delivered the targeted HEIs (with electrodes placed in corresponding areas, in the bone marrow, at the control centers of the muscles of the legs) to three male patients with chronic spinal cord injury for more than 4 years and with partial or complete paralysis of the lower limbs. Very accurate maps of motor neuron activation and simulated models were used to identify the optimal stimulation process of different muscle groups. The Ees came from a pulse generator controlled in real time via a wireless communication, programmed to coordinate with the desired movement.

"Accurate" synchronization "and precise positioning of the electrode stimulation electrodes are essential to ensure the patient's ability to produce a voluntary movement.This space-time coincidence actually triggers the growth of new nerve connectionsCourtine said, "And the human nervous system reacted even more deeply than expected." A few days after the start of treatment, patients arrived at a steady pace (while receiving stimulation), which allowed them to Adjust the pace of their pace. At the end of the treatment, patients managed to walk for up to an hour on a treadmill during the EES.. After rehabilitation, they continued to walk autonomously (partially supported or with a walker) while receiving stimulation and, eventually, they recovered the voluntary movements of the legs without stimulation. In one comment, the authors speculated that previous stimulus protocols to restore gait might have been less effective, as they disrupted patients 'perceptions of members' positions. Instead, this new stimulation protocol promotes locomotion by preserving sensory signals from the legs and allowing the brain time to "settle" with the impulses.

The article in Nature