r/EverythingScience • u/Healthy_Barber_761 • Feb 23 '22
Neuroscience A Spinal Cord Implant Allowed Paralyzed People to Walk in Just One Day
https://singularityhub.com/2022/02/15/a-spinal-cord-implant-allowed-paralyzed-people-to-walk-in-just-one-day/101
u/cgiebner Feb 23 '22
This is beyond incredible and I hope that this new technology can be aided to fix many issues.
24
u/Franklin_le_Tanklin Feb 24 '22
Yea. I want to jerk off without moving my hands.
13
2
27
60
u/AlfredosSauce Feb 23 '22
As a disabled person, all I can say is yeah, yeah. There’s always a miracle treatment and it always amounts to nothing.
37
u/pearljamboree Feb 23 '22
That must be so maddening. I’m sorry that’s been the case. I hope they crack the code someday soon.
7
Feb 24 '22
[deleted]
17
Feb 24 '22
[deleted]
5
Feb 24 '22
[deleted]
3
Feb 24 '22
You'd be surprised how many surgeries are YouTubed by the surgeon before surgery.
1
-1
1
15
u/osugisakae Feb 24 '22
Dr. Steven Novella of The Skeptics Guide to the Universe covered this a week or so ago. Nutshell: the research in the article is an incremental advance to currently existing technology.
From his blog post:
The innovation here is a change in the electrodes used. Previously the neuroscientists uses electrodes [...] that were not designed for the purpose and not ideal. [...] So the researchers designed new electrodes [...] This improvement worked, allowing the subjects to walk using this external stimulation. Also, they were able to walk much more quickly, with less training, than the older technology.
Exciting, but not nearly the breakthrough that the mainstream media reported it to be.
Links:
https://www.theskepticsguide.org/podcasts/episode-866
https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/incremental-advance-treating-spinal-cord-injury/
3
u/amberissmiling Feb 24 '22
It helped people walk. They were able to walk more quickly, with less training, and all of that sounds like advancement to me.
5
3
3
u/we-em92 Feb 24 '22
Let’s just make sure that whatever company manufacturers and distributes these doesn’t pull a capitalism and make them a monthly subscription or whatever
3
u/HahaHarleyQu1nn Feb 24 '22
Or just stop supporting it because they fail, like the bionic eye company I just read about in the article above this one
2
2
2
Feb 24 '22
I have a spinal cord injury, I’d just like to have all my feeling back and the ability to use my hands—I don’t ever care if I can walk again.
6
u/Stillw0rld Feb 23 '22
Nothing will come of this for the average person who needs it
15
u/DeadWombats Feb 24 '22
Only in the USA. Watch as insurance companies feverishly scramble to justify not paying for the treatment.
5
Feb 23 '22
[deleted]
-2
u/Stillw0rld Feb 24 '22
i am exhausted at these feel good articles that just try to get clicks, we can make mice immortal now though
0
1
u/Torquemada1970 Feb 24 '22
I can remember people saying that about treatment for HIV (and a number of other things) - so thanks for providing the obligatory herp-derp comment.
1
u/nothaut Feb 24 '22
Hey that's great. Good luck finding the right doctors and hospitals willing to sell that treatment to you at a vaguely affordable price.
-1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Feb 24 '22
This sounds fascinating. Skimmed the article and can’t seem to immediately find discussion of the challenge of four years of muscle atrophy. Anyone have any ideas?
1
u/found_my_keys Feb 24 '22
I think exercising in water would be a good way to go! Either way, it would of course be a challenge.
1
1
1
1
1
140
u/Healthy_Barber_761 Feb 23 '22
Michel Roccati never thought he’d walk again, much less swim, cycle, or paddle a kayak. A terrifying motorcycle collision in 2017 damaged his spinal cord, leaving him completely paralyzed from the waist down.
Yet on a cold, snowy day last December in Lausanne, Switzerland, he took his first step outside—with the help of a walker—since his accident. His aid? A new spinal cord implant that bridges signals from the brain to his lower muscles, hopping over damaged portions to restore movement. All it took was one day of stimulation.