The neurons that restore walking after paralysis

Kathe, Claudia; Skinnider, Michael A.; Hutson, Thomas H.; Regazzi, Nicola; Gautier, Matthieu; Demesmaeker, Robin; Komi, Salif; Ceto, Steven; James, Nicholas D.; Cho, Newton; Baud, Laetitia; Galan, Katia; Matson, Kaya J.E.; Rowald, Andreas; Kim, Kyungjin; Wang, Ruijia; Minassian, Karen; Prior, John O.; Asboth, Léonie; Barraud, Quentin; Lacour, Stéphanie P.; Levine, Ariel J.; Wagner, Fabien B.; Bloch, Jocelyne; Squair, Jordan W.; Courtine, Grégoire

doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05385-7

articleNatureNov 9, 2022HYBRID OA

The neurons that restore walking after paralysis

CKClaudia Kathe MAMichael A. Skinnider THThomas H. Hutson NRNicola Regazzi MGMatthieu Gautier

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne · University of Lausanne · +7 more institutions

PubMed

Indexed incrossrefpubmed

Abstract

Abstract A spinal cord injury interrupts pathways from the brain and brainstem that project to the lumbar spinal cord, leading to paralysis. Here we show that spatiotemporal epidural electrical stimulation (EES) of the lumbar spinal cord 1–3 applied during neurorehabilitation 4,5 (EES REHAB ) restored walking in nine individuals with chronic spinal cord injury. This recovery involved a reduction in neuronal activity in the lumbar spinal cord of humans during walking. We hypothesized that this unexpected reduction reflects activity-dependent selection of specific neuronal subpopulations that become essential for a patient to walk after spinal cord injury. To identify these putative neurons, we modelled the…

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Topics & keywords

Topics

Keywords

Spinal cord
Spinal cord injury
Lumbar Spinal Cord
Neuroscience
Paralysis
Brainstem
Lumbar
Medicine

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Good health and well-being

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