Spinal Stimulation Gets Paralyzed Patients Moving

Dustin Shillcox was in a car accident and became paralyzed from the waist down. Neuroscientist Susan Harkema at the University of Louisville, Kentucky used electrical stimulation to activate the lower spinal cord. On the first day of treatment Dustin was able to stand and support his weight with some assistance for balance. Later on Dustin began regaining control over his bladder and reproductive system. After this breakthrough Susan was given permission by the FDA to try this technique in four more paralyzed people. This article says that the circuitry is very complicated in the spinal cord and that you could control walking with just the spinal cord was unclear to neurologists. Susan said that the key to successfully reawakening the lower spine was to use the right amount of electrical stimulation, just enough to wake it up and retrieve the sensory information going to the brain. “It’s is like putting a hearing aid on the spinal cord” says Edgerton, Susan’s teacher, So that the brain can receive the sensory afferent signals and process them and reawaken the system.

I found this article very interesting in that they were letting a paralyzed man walk again and this has never been before. I hope that this can lead to new treatment for paralyzed people so they can regain control of their body.

 http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/devices/spinal-stimulation-gets-paralyzed-patients-moving

Morgan Munera