Spinal Implants May Allow Disabled People to Walk One Day
In recent news, a group of neuroscientists from Switzerland have discovered a way to revitalize paralyzed limbs through electrical impulses in the hosts severed spinal cord. The testing began with mice with damaged spinal chords that did not allow movement of the lower body. Zapping particular nerve cells stimulated enough action to create movement in the disabled legs. This allowed some mice to take 1000 steps, navigating through simple obstacles and stairs. Although this is modest achievement, there is still a lot of work to be done to begin human testing. Something similar was done to men in the US with disabled lower halves. Initially they were unable to function properly, but, with some getting used to, they felt sensation their feet, legs, ankles and toes. Some even made some steps forward. Such a system can help many people in the future, the bigger problem behind the development is how to integrate a automatic way of movement. Because as of now, each step must be made manually. More strides are to be made with neurotransmitters that will detect intended movements in people, and project them in this system.
You can read more here: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/531051/paralyzed-rats-take-1000-steps-orchestrated-by-computer/
If this ever becomes available to the general public, it is obviously going to have a huge impact on the world, although due to the amount of research and improvements that need to be done (since it is a process that must be conducted very carefully), unfortunately this may not become available in our lifetimes. Unless, of course, there's another huge breakthrough, which would be great.
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