Deep brain stimulation restored the ability to walk to two paralyzed patients

 Some were able to walk normally

Deep brain stimulation of a specific area of ​​the brain improved the ability to move the lower limbs of two patients with severe spinal cord injuries, researchers said.

The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, said deep brain stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus "immediately enhanced the ability to walk" in mice, rats and two humans.

The importance of brain stimulation

This type of stimulation has been used to treat Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders and targets other areas of the brain, but it has not been tested for spinal cord injuries.

In both patients, the spinal cord, despite its injuries, was still able to send some signals to and from the brain.

“Once the electrode was placed and the stimulation was applied, the first patient immediately said ‘I feel my legs’, and when we increased the stimulation, she said ‘I feel the need to walk’,” Jocelyn Bloch, who led the study from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, said in a statement.

Legs control

“These reactions confirmed that we were targeting the right area, even though they have never been associated with leg control in humans,” Bloch added.

“At that moment, I knew we were making an important discovery,” she said.

The other patient, 54, had been in a wheelchair since a skiing accident in 2006. He said that shortly after the treatment, he was able to walk “a few steps” and “reach for things in the kitchen cupboards.”

The researchers said both patients also showed long-term improvement, which persisted even when the stimulation was stopped.