Neuroprosthetic technologies to augment the impact of neurorehabilitation after spinal cord injury

Spinal cord injury leads to a range of disabilities, including limitations in locomotor activity, that seriously diminish the patients’ autonomy and quality of life. Electrochemical neuromodulation therapies, robot-assisted rehabilitation and willpower-based training paradigms restored supraspinal control of locomotion in rodent models of severe spinal cord injury. This treatment promoted extensive and ubiquitous remodeling of spared circuits and residual neural pathways. In four chronic paraplegic individuals, electrical neuromodulation of the spinal cord resulted in the immediate recovery of voluntary leg movements, suggesting that the therapeutic concepts developed in rodent models may also apply to humans. Here, we briefly review previous work, summarize current developments, and highlight impediments to translate these interventions into medical practice to improve functional recovery of spinal-cord-injured individuals

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Silvestro Micera, Grégoire Courtine, Jocelyne Bloch, Eduardo Martin Moraud, Joachim von Zitzewitz, Nicolas Francis Fumeaux, Marco Capogrosso, Rubia van den Brand, Fabien Bertrand Paul Wagner, Jean-Baptiste Mignardot
2015
Journal paper

Abstract

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/257910?ln=en

About this result

Related concepts (32)

Related publications (33)

Non-invasive spinal cord electrical stimulation for arm and hand function in chronic tetraplegia: a safety and efficacy trial

Grégoire Courtine, Jordan Squair, Markus Maximilian Rieger

Cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to permanent impairment of arm and hand functions. Here we conducted a prospective, single-arm, multicenter, open-label, non-significant risk trial that evaluated the safety and efficacy of ARCEX Therapy to improve a ...

Nature Portfolio2024

Walking naturally after spinal cord injury using a brain-spine interface

Grégoire Courtine, Jocelyne Bloch, Léonie Asboth, Robin Jonathan Demesmaeker, Anne Marie Lucienne Watrin, Sergio Daniel Hernandez, Henri Charles Alexandre Lorach, Jimmy James Ravier, Grégory Didier Dumont, Félix Antoine Martel, Laure Coquoz, Valeria Spagnolo, Thibault Jean Etienne Collin, Icare Sakr, Lucas Struber, Salif Axel Komi, Molywan Vat, Carmina Andrea Galvez Solano, Guillaume Vincent Charvet, Edeny Baaklini, Cathal John Harte, Olivier Pierre Nicolas Faivre, Serpil Karakas

A spinal cord injury interrupts the communication between the brain and the region of the spinal cord that produces walking, leading to paralysis(1,2). Here, we restored this communication with a digital bridge between the brain and spinal cord that enable ...

NATURE PORTFOLIO2023

Closed-Loop Control of Epidural Electrical Stimulation in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury and Parkinson's Disease

Nicolò Macellari

Over the past two decades, epidural electrical stimulation (EES) has transitioned from a treatment for chronic pain to a promising paradigm for ameliorating deficits associated with neurological disorders like spinal cord injury (SCI) and Parkinson's Disea ...

EPFL2023

Spinal cord injury

A spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal cord that causes temporary or permanent changes in its function. Symptoms may include loss of muscle function, sensation, or autonomic function in the parts of the body served by the spinal cord below the level of the injury. Injury can occur at any level of the spinal cord and can be complete, with a total loss of sensation and muscle function at lower sacral segments, or incomplete, meaning some nervous signals are able to travel past the injured area of the cord up to the Sacral S4-5 spinal cord segments.

Spinal cord injury research

Spinal cord injury research seeks new ways to cure or treat spinal cord injury in order to lessen the debilitating effects of the injury in the short or long term. There is no cure for SCI, and current treatments are mostly focused on spinal cord injury rehabilitation and management of the secondary effects of the condition. Two major areas of research include neuroprotection, ways to prevent damage to cells caused by biological processes that take place in the body after the injury, and neuroregeneration, regrowing or replacing damaged neural circuits.

Spinal cord

The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue, which extends from the medulla oblongata in the brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone). The backbone encloses the central canal of the spinal cord, which contains cerebrospinal fluid. The brain and spinal cord together make up the central nervous system (CNS). In humans, the spinal cord begins at the occipital bone, passing through the foramen magnum and then enters the spinal canal at the beginning of the cervical vertebrae.