“Brain therapy” can free paralyzed patients from wheelchairs

Researchers said that deep stimulation of a specific area of ​​the brain led to improvements in the lower limbs, restoring the ability to move in two patients who had suffered severe lower limb injuries. Spinal cord.

According to a study published in the journal Nature Medicine, Deep brain stimulation In the lateral hypothalamus, it “immediately improved walking ability” in mice, rats and two humans.

This type of stimulation has been used to treat Parkinson’s disease (Parkinson’s disease) and other movement disorders and targets other areas of the brain, but has not been attempted to treat spinal injuries.

According to the study, in both patients, despite the injury, the spinal cord was still able to send some signals to and from the brain.

Patient experience

Jocelyn Bloch, who led the study from the Collège Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, said: “When the electrode was placed and the stimulation was done, the first patient immediately said she felt, ‘I can feel my legs’, and when we increased the stimulation, she said : “I feel like walking.”

“These reactions confirmed that we were targeting the right area, even though it had never been linked to leg control in humans,” Bloch added.

She continued: “At this point I realized that we were witnessing an important discovery.

Another patient (age 54) had used a wheelchair since a skiing accident in 2006.

He said that shortly after treatment he was able to walk “a few steps” and “reach things in the kitchen cupboards”.

Two patients also showed long-term improvement that lasted even when the stimulation was stopped, the researchers said.