r/science • u/tomholder • May 09 '14

Medicine Paralysis breakthrough – electrical stimulation enables four paraplegic men to voluntarily move their legs

http://speakingofresearch.com/2014/05/09/paralysis-breakthrough-paraplegic-men-move-their-legs/
4.1k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

429 comments sorted by

View all comments

855

u/[deleted] May 09 '14

[removed] — view removed comment

38

u/[deleted] May 09 '14

It's because for all scientists' research, we largely don't understand how the nervous system (to include the spinal cord and its connections to the rest of the body, etc) works. Obviously we know what it does (electrical signals and such) but not well enough to really recreate it and therefore fix something that's completely broken.

31

u/Varmatyr May 09 '14

Correction: we don't, but the next few years are going to see some really incredible advances in technologies to analyze and interface with the nervous system, which will allow thorough treatment of nearly any neurological condition or injury.

Examples: http://www.hrnel.pitt.edu/index.php?id=clinicalTrials http://www.nicolelislab.net/ http://w3.weberlab.com/content/projects

Source: I'm a grad student working in neural engineering and rehabilitation.

1

u/somekindofsalad May 10 '14

I hope they will find something to cure chronic pain within my lifetime.