Deep stimulation of specific areas of the brain using electrodes can help some people with spinal cord injuries walk more easily, a study and testimony published Monday concluded.
“Now, when I see a staircase with only a few steps, I know I can climb it alone,” Wolfgang Jäger, one of the two patients who participated in the first test, said in a video clip published Monday.
This 54-year-old Swiss stressed, “It is nice not to have to depend on others all the time,” noting that going up and down a few steps did not pose any problem for him during the vacation once the equipment was turned on.
Electrodes were placed in a specific area of his brain, and were connected to a device implanted in his chest. When turned on, these devices send electrical impulses to the brain.
This experimental technique is intended for people with incomplete spinal cord injuries, that is, when the connection between the brain and spinal cord is not completely cut off, and they are only able to make partial movements.
The Swiss team behind the study, the results of which were published in the journal Nature Medicine, was known for having achieved scientific progress in recent years by using implants in the brain or spinal cord to allow paralyzed people to regain the ability to walk.
This time, these researchers wanted to determine which area of the brain contributes most to the recovery of people with spinal cord injuries.
Map of brain activity
Using 3D imaging techniques to map brain activity in mice with these lesions, the researchers created a kind of “brain atlas.” They found that the area they investigated was located in the lateral hypothalamus, which is known to regulate consciousness, feeding, or motivation.
Gregoire Courtin, professor of neuroscience at the Swiss Polytechnic College of Lausanne, told Agence France-Presse that a group of neurons in this region “appears to be involved in restoring the ability to walk after spinal cord injury.”
The researchers then sought to amplify the signal from the lateral hypothalamus via deep brain stimulation, a technique frequently used in Parkinson’s disease.
Tests on rats and mice showed that electrical stimulation improved walking “immediately,” according to the study.
Desire to walk
“I feel my legs.” This is the comment made by the first person to participate in the experiment conducted in 2022 – a woman – when her device was turned on for the first time, neurosurgeon Jocelyn Bloch reported to Agence France-Presse. “I feel like walking,” she said, as soon as the current increased in strength, according to the scientist.
Patients included in the trial, who can operate the stimulator when needed, also benefited from months of rehabilitation and muscle training.
For women, the goal was to walk without a walker; As for Wolfgang Jäger, he wants to regain the ability to climb stairs on his own. “Both achieved their goal,” Jocelyn Bloch stressed.
Gregoire Courtin stressed the need to conduct more research, noting that this technique will not be effective for all patients.
Since everything depends on stimulating the brain’s signal to the spinal cord, the amount of the initial signal plays a role. Curtin noted that although deep brain stimulation is now more widespread, some people do not feel “comfortable” with such interference in their brains.
In the future, according to these researchers, the best option for recovery from this type of injury may be to stimulate the lateral hypothalamus and spinal cord.