Brain stimulation can help injured people walk, say scientists in Switzerland

The Manila Times

Brain stimulation can help injured people walk, say scientists in Switzerland  Scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique of Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, say that electrically stimulating a particular region in the brain could help people with injured spinal cords walk more easily, with one patient, Wolfgang Jaeger, describing how "with a lot of training and stimulation, muscle growth developed." "You could really see that the progress was there even without stimulation," he says.   NeuroRestore / EPFL 2024 / AFP VIDEO  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe  Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net    Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital    Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein   #TheManilaTimes  #worldnews  #brainstimulation

Transcript

00:00Yet, with like many very rigorous experiments in preclinical model, we discovered that this

00:19region is essential to regain walking and we could target the lateral hypothalamus with

00:24stimulation in order to have this immediate facilitation of walking and to apply during

00:30rehabilitation which led to the regrow of nerve fibers that led to sustained recovery

00:36of walking even when the stimulation was turned off.

00:39So we were ready to do this surgery.

00:42It was an awake surgery.

00:43The patient was lying supine and received these two implanted electrodes in the lateral

00:49hypothalamus and when we switched on the stimulation, they immediately felt the urge

00:55to walk.

00:56So they started rehabilitation with the stimulation and they were much better with the stim on

01:01and after six months of rehabilitation, we saw an improvement in the motor score that

01:08was really impressive.

01:09And we hope in the future that we'll be able to even combine this type of approach with

01:14stimulation of the spinal cord to really maximize the recovery in people with spinal

01:19cord injury.

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