Reversing Paralysis

Reversing Paralysis

Nina Zanghi

Reversing Paralysis seemed like a distant goal for scientists, having someone be able to walk again seemed close to impossible. But, French neuroscientist,Grégoire Courtine has made incredible advancements with a system that would be implanted in the head of the patient.

One of the tests of this remarkable technology was on a monkey. The French neuroscientist and his team used a knife in the spine to paralyze the right leg of the monkey. Then they put in an electronic system right beneath the skull of the monkey. What this system does is read the thoughts of the monkey wanting to walk, even though his right leg is paralyzed. Then it transmits it into electrical stimulation down the spine of the monkey. And not long after the leg was slowly moving, the monkey was hobbling, but he was soon able to walk again, all from this amazing technology put in his head.

This system is called a “neural bypass” that could once and for all reverse Paralysis. There has even been tests on human subjects, one of them being at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, with a man who can only move his head and his shoulders. They researchers there put the same system in that was put in on the monkey, just a little different. With that system implanted in his brain, the subject could move his arms and even move a cup with a straw in it to his mouth, which he something he never would have been able to do with out this system.

This technology is still not perfect, and a lot more testing needs to be done, but if researchers and scientists can pull this off, in 10 to 15 years, we may be able to reverse Paralysis.