An Interesting Science Friday Story: Rerouting Working Nerves

"A paralyzed man with a spinal cord injury to the C7 vertebrae is able to move his fingers again. Surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine rerouted working nerves in the patient’s upper arms to restore some hand function. Dr. Ida Fox discusses the procedure described in the Journal of Neurosurgery."

http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/05/18/2012/rerouting-working-nerves-to-restore-hand-function.html

[SarahL2491]

interesting, wish our nerves were that easy to find, huh! not sure I want them in my head playing around tho, ha

[JaneK1975]

I think it's very cool that the patient described in the story is 70, and they expect his brain to be "plastic" enough to retrain (with therapy).

I did some Googling and found research published in the 80's regarding this procedure on mice, and research out of China during the 90's using this procedure to bring back (some) leg function to human patients. It's totally radical, if you ask me.

[sllowe]

Thank you for posting this Jane! Going to make the time today to read the link.