Posted on 10/15/2008 1:53:53 PM PDT by neverdem
AP Science Writer
Monkeys taught to play a computer game were able to overcome wrist paralysis with an experimental device that might lead to new treatments for patients with stroke and spinal cord injury. Remarkably, the monkeys regained use of paralyzed muscles by learning to control the activity of just a single brain cell.
The result is "an important step forward," said Dawn Taylor of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, who studies the concept of using brain signals to overcome paralysis. She wasn't involved in the new work.
The device monitored the activity of a brain cell and used that as a cue to stimulate wrist muscles electrically. Researchers found it could even use brain cells that normally had nothing to do with wrist movement, said study co-author Chet Moritz.
So a large untapped pool of brain cells may be available for letting paralyzed people do things like grasping a coffee cup or brushing teeth, Moritz said. But he stressed the approach is years, if not decades, away from use in people.
Moritz and his colleagues at the University of Washington in Seattle report the results in a paper published online Wednesday by the journal Nature.
Taylor, who also works with the Cleveland VA Medical Center, said the study illustrates the potential of the approach and the flexibility of brain cells.
Lee Miller, a researcher at Northwestern University who has done similar work, said any demonstration of a device using brain signals to make paralyzed limbs move is "an important new development."
Miller used the pattern of activity in about 100 brain cells to predict the kind of wrist movement a monkey wanted to make. Moritz said focusing on the output of an individual brain cell instead may turn out to work better for overcoming paralysis...
(Excerpt) Read more at sanluisobispo.com ...
This will be good news to Barney Frank when he strokes out on one of his lovers/spouses.
Spinal Cord Injury repair is one of the most important issues in medicine. What we learn about SCI repair can be applied to many other neurological conditions. Thanks for posting the story.
Well then I guess that if "you know who" is ever paralyzed, there's hope for him to walk again?
This looks promising. Thanks.
That’s great news,I only hope it would be available soon.My husband had a stroke eight weeks ago at age 50.It is a struggle for all of us.
Amazing. Let’s hope it pans out.
I'm spinal cord injured at the cervical 6 level [like the quaterback on "Friday Night Lights"]. My brain always tries to send signals to move my fingers or legs or toes...etc. The signal cannot get past the dead spot in my spinal cord in my neck. It's the same as a telephone fiber-optical cable cut: you can call all you want with a perfectly good phone, but all you'll get is a busy signal or no signal at all. So, unless this works like a cell phone [pun intended] from my brain tower 'cell' to my body parts 'cells' then, there is something here I'm missing. A dead transmission line is a dead transmission line. Perhaps, those testicle stem cells would work...or just make me randy...(:+0
This is another step in the direction we're hoping will find a solution to the problem. It doesn't fix the break, but it does teach researchers about how the brain cells work to send signals.
Perhaps in time it will lead to tapping into unused areas of the brain and using those areas to signal some type of “cordless receptor” that spans the break.
It's a long way off, and you and I may not benefit personally, but then again, who knows where this and other studies will lead.
Complicated stuff and you know so much more than I do about the subject. My interest started to deepen when I became friends with a paraplegic who started a CSI non-profit that attempted to get some human trials going using adult stem cells. After some initial encouraging lab results on rats the human trials never seemed to get off the ground.
Man 'roused from coma' by a magnetic field
CDC Releases New Infant Mortality Data
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
blasts from the past:
Scientists Reverse Paralysis in Dogs
My Way News | Dec 3, 2004 | RICK CALLAHAN
Posted on 12/03/2004 4:07:48 PM PST by neverdem
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1293973/posts
Scientists Reverse Paralysis in Dogs
Associated Press | 4 December 2004 | Rick Callahan
Posted on 12/07/2004 8:09:27 AM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1296189/posts
Paralysed dogs regain movement
New Scientist | 4/15/05 | John Bonner
Posted on 04/15/2005 11:30:24 PM PDT by LibWhacker
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1384848/posts
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