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Scientists Restore Walking After Spinal Cord Injury

Posted by kdawson on from the man-who-mistook-his-legs-for-a-pair-of-scissors dept.

Spinal cord damage blocks the routes that the brain uses to send messages to the nerve cells that control walking. Until now, doctors believed that the only way for injured patients to walk again was to re-grow the long nerve highways that link the brain and base of the spinal cord. For the first time, a UCLA study shows that the central nervous system can reorganize itself and follow new pathways to restore the cellular communication required for movement. The lead researcher said, "This pessimistic view [that severe injury to the spinal cord means permanent paralysis] has changed over my lifetime, and our findings add to a growing body of research showing that the nervous system can reorganize after injury."

6 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. Good news for paraplegic mice! by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Funny

    The entire population of paraplegic mice are rejoicing today in the hopes that this news pans out.

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
    1. Re:Good news for paraplegic mice! by somersault · · Score: 1, Funny

      By the sounds of it, so are you.

      --
      which is totally what she said
    2. Re:Good news for paraplegic mice! by sm62704 · · Score: 1, Funny

      Day 1: Mommy, I'm scared, there's some guy that's trying to have sex with me. He looks like a tadpole! Help me!

      Day 2: Oh wow that was intense! Oh I do love my sperm cell, he was just AWESOME!

      Day 3: Oh look I have a twin sister. No, wait, three sisters. No, seven... thirteen... what's this? They're part of me!

      Day 4: Mommie look I'm a mass of cells about the size of the hangnail. I'm not even a fetus and won't be for quite some time, let alone a baby.

      Day 5: Oh look, mommie, the parent post is a troll!

      Day 6: Mommie, I think you should go to Biters Anonymous for their twelve step program to try and stop biting at trolls.

      Day 7: Oh shit mommie's Huffing kittens!

      Day 8: I hear trolls eat babies!

      Day 9: Mommie, that troll is AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHGHHHH---------

      Day ten: Mommy, I am okay. I am in the flying spagetti monster's arms. he is holding me. He told me about kitten huffing and baby-eating trolls. Why didn't you want to eat me Mommy?

      One more heart that never started. Two more eyes that never grew. Two more hands that will never exist and didn't exist. One more mouth that will never eat babies.

      REPOST THIS IF U HATE TROLLS

      --
      mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  2. Oh, I get it! by martin-boundary · · Score: 2, Funny

    Brain interprets severed spine as censorship and routes around it :)

  3. Keep on forking in the real world by Sciryl+Llort · · Score: 3, Funny

    One more heart that was stopped. Two more eyes that will never see. Two more hands that will never touch. Two more legs that will never run. One more mouth that will never speak.

    It's one more kid that'll never go to school
    That'll never fall in love never get to be coooo-oool.
  4. Re:Anecdote by Frnknstn · · Score: 3, Funny

    Is that what you told the feds when they busted you for being a pedo?

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    If it's in you sig, it's in your post.