For millennia, one of humanity's great challenges is to make paralyzed people able to walk again and for many this can only be the result of a miracle. However, new neuroscience studies have encouraged many people, especially after simulations in which people with paralysis walk again.
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A group of Swiss scientists decided to study in depth which areas of our mind are responsible for the movements of the lower limbs and which promote walking. For this, they initially started from the study with mice and then discovered that the main area is the spinal cord.
From this, the possibilities of restoring movements based on the reconstruction of the spinal cord were studied. This is because a spinal cord injury makes communication between the brain and the lower limbs impossible, which prevents locomotion in the natural way.
Based on this, a search with which it was possible to prove that the electrical stimulus in the spinal cord can provoke a reversal in cases of paralysis. It was then that neuroscientist Claudia Kathe, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) decided to test a technology called Electrical Epidural Stimulation.
Dr.'s method. Kathe works with spinal cord rehabilitation with electrical stimulation for five months, at a frequency of four to five times a week. In this case, the spinal cord will be stimulated by a surgically implanted neurotransmitter, while the patients undergo an intensive neurorehabilitation process.
Then, after arduous research, the first positive results came and nine completely paralyzed patients were able to take a few steps after the procedure. For now, it was still necessary to use a walker, but the expectation is that with time and the advancement of research it will be possible to make the treatment even more efficient.
Even scientists still emphasize that this is just one of the aspects that influence paralysis, but that there is still much to study about communication between the brain and the limbs. In any case, the positive results have already been celebrated precisely because it is a very significant advance.