Thomas, a 23-year-old from Florida, said: “being a participant in this study truly changed my life, as it has provided me with a hope that I didn’t think was possible after my car accident.” Kelly Thomas was able to walk after 81 sessions of stimulation over 15 weeks, although she had to use a walking frame, while Jeff Marquis was able to walk just over 90 metres without a break after 278 sessions over 85 weeks. “It is like it is more aware, it actually can listen to that little whisper from the brain that is still there and it can generate the motor pattern,” said Angeli, adding that training to link movements with these signals is crucial.Īll four of the people had lost all motor control below the site of the injury, although two had some level of sensation.Īfter implantation of the device and locomotor training, the latter two were eventually able to walk over ground unassisted. “The spinal cord is isolated, it potentially still receives information from the environment, but it is losing the big driver, which was the brain.”Īngeli said that it is thought that when the implanted device is turned on, the resulting electrical stimulation raises the excitability of the spinal cord – in a sense making it more alert. “But before the injury it was getting commands from the brain and it was getting information from the environment as well.” “We know the spinal cord has the ability to organise very detailed motor activity,” said Angeli. How an implanted device could help paraplegic patients walk again ![]() The approach – called epidural stimulation – works on the principle that there are still some small signals from the brain that cross the site of the spinal cord injury – even though these are not enough on their own to generate voluntary movement. Electrical activity produced by muscles in the legs was monitored during the sessions. The device, originally developed many years ago for pain control, was placed below the site of injury, covering regions that send sensorimotor signals to the legs while a battery was implanted in the abdominal wall, allowing the frequency of the stimulation, its intensity and duration, to be tweaked wirelessly. In a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Angeli and colleagues report that they implanted an array of 16 electrodes in the lower back of four patients, paralysed after mountain bike or traffic accidents several years before. “It is an emotional time for the individual because it is something that they have been told they are never going to be able to do again.” ![]() “It is incredible to be able to be in there and actually see them taking their first steps,” said Dr Claudia Angeli of Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center at the University of Louisville, and a co-author of one of the studies.
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