Making the Lame Walk

     There is hope for quadriplegic and paraplegic people and animals in the future.  In April of 2013, the University of Washington and the Japan Science and Technology Agency in Tokyo, Japan published an article that stated work on using artificial corticospinal and musclospinal connections to restore pathways in the spine had been successful.  The testing was performed on a monkey with a C-2 injury causing paralysis from the shoulders down.

      As a bit of background information, a spinal cord’s damage creates a lesion in the spinal network.  The nerves above and below the lesion are still functional, but because of the break in the path, the nerve signals being sent below the lesion are unable to reach the brain and cause movement.  This is why paralysis is a result of spinal cord injuries.  With the research at Washington University, a “neural bridge” could connect the two nervous pathways and could possibly restore functionality.

     The testing for this experiment is as followed.  The monkey with the cervical spinal injury was anesthetized and cortical implants were placed in the dura, finger, wrist, arm areas that were considered the primary motor cortex, and the dorsal arm areas for premotor cortex close to the lesion in the C-2 vertebrae. 

     For three months after the lesion, the monkey was unable to move its fingers independently at the level that it was pre-lesion.  After the 5-7 week mark, the ability for a “power grip” gradually came back but not at a promising level.  This result reflected another study that was done two years earlier.  Mapping of the electrode sights was completed throughout the trial and it was found that 40% of the electrodes could provoke movement.  The loss of function in the upper extremity was consistent with another study that was performed in 2004.

     It’s obvious that the research done hasn’t accomplished a total solution to “curing” paralysis, but with more time, money, and brain power solutions could be produced to get the other 60% of the electrodes working.  If this study were to produce a way to bridge the gap between the superior and inferior nerve ends of a lesion then the benefits would certainly outweigh the time and multiple experiments it took to achieve such a monumental discovery.

Citations: 

Nishimura, Yukio, Steve I. Perlmutter, and Eberhard E. Fetz. "Restoration of Upper Limb Movement via Artificial Corticospinal and Musculospinal Connections in a Monkey with Spinal Cord Injury." Frontiers. Frontiers Media S.A., 11 Apr. 2013. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.