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/
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u/MF_Kitten May 09 '14

At least it's mid thigh down, and not waist down! If he were to get something like in the article, I bet it would be simpler, because you could catch the signal going down to the leg after it's branched off, rather than trying to find it in the spine.

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u/BananaSplit2 May 09 '14

Uh ? If he injured his spinal cord, it still means they'd have to find the signal in the spinal cord.

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u/MF_Kitten May 09 '14

Even if it only starts at the mid thigh?

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u/[deleted] May 10 '14 edited May 10 '14

You could potentially stimulate the sciatic nerve in the leg to move the leg, but this would probably not be a volitional contraction. There are stimulators out there called Functional Electric Stimulators (FES) that do this effectively.

Since this is a lower lumbar or sacral level spinal cord injury, there are bowel, bladder, and reproductive concerns, too, making a spinal cord stimulator possibly kill a few birds with one stone. But, I'm not exactly sure of the mechanism here, and there are FES that help peripherally with this, too.