Spinal stimulation can improve arm and hand movement years after a stroke

Spinal stimulation can improve arm and hand movement years after a stroke Enlarge this image toggle caption Tim Betler/UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences Tim Betler/UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences Pulses of electricity delivered to a precise location on the spinal cord have helped two stroke patients regain control of a disabled arm and hand, a team reports in the journal Nature Medicine. Enlarge this image toggle caption Tim Betler/UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences Tim Betler/UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences "You don't realize how many things you need two hands for until you only have one good one," she says. Enlarge this image toggle caption Tim Betler/UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences Tim Betler/UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences "We wanted to pick up on these weak signals and essentially turn them into functional outputs so that a person would be able to control their own hand voluntarily," he says. Enlarge this image toggle caption Tim Betler/UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences Tim Betler/UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences Rendulic was the first person they treated.