Paralysed Rats Made To Walk Again

Key Takeaways

now we've all heard of mind over matter but is it possible that the right motivation can actually help repair spinal damage I've come to loanne Switzerland to find out about some Innovative research being done to repair the spinal cords of rats using Pharmaceuticals electrical signals and the key ingredient motivation sometimes with the right motivation Anything is [Music] Possible [Music] the main function of the spinal cord is to transmit neural signals or messages between the brain and the rest of the body so when the spinal cord is severed or crushed these messages can't get past the injury the result is often chronic paralysis research in this area generally focuses on regenerating damaged nerve fibers but here in loanne they're taking a different approach welcome in the lab oh thank you Professor Corine's work with rats is producing remarkable results what so I thought what can we actually deliver to the spinal cord the kind of information that the brain would deliver naturally in order to work the rats have their spinal cords cut in two places although not completely severed signals can't get past the lesion leaving the rats paralyzed to reactivate the healthy but disconnected neuros cells below the injury the researchers administer a cocktail of synthetic neurotransmitters followed by electrical stimulation um I'm pluging the cable that connects to the uh electrodes on the spinal cord uh so we can provide the stimulation to the spinal cord okay so there are cables that run down the spinal cord uh it actually runs Under the Skin and then uh it's sutured on top of the spinal cord this electrochemical combination mimics the input of the brain and awakens the spinal cord below the lesion now I start the trill immediately she will start working it's amazing right the result after a few weeks of training and while on the treadmill the rat is incredibly able to walk again window so this animal was completely paralyzed 5 minutes ago and now she's doing continu stepping on the treadmill and I we go at running speed immediately up the animal is capable of like literally sprinting on the treadmill and look at this you can even do it yourself I will stop the treadmill up she stand immediately but this is happening without the involvement of the brain at this stage the rat's stepping is stimulated by the treadmill the legs are moving independently of the brain so the movement is completely involuntary that you know you can Trend the rat on this treadmill for two month you will not see recovery of volary control why the brain is not involved there's no motivation to work because you see that the motivation is the key to restoring voluntary movement so this is where the irresistible Swiss chocolate comes in I brought uh a chocolate aair I ate half but the other half is uh for the rat yeah see she does like it she likes it we have a combination of like actually yogurt and chocolate which the rat love this reward-based training without a treadmill was the focus of the next phase of research in the right position they designed a special robot which only supports the paralyzed rat but doesn't Propel it forward this mean that the rats really need to generate the propulsive forces to go toward the reward which is circet so the rat is asked to go like push herself forward but she does get a little bit of help up and down the rats have again been given electrochemical stimulants but without the treadmill the rat has to decide for itself if it wants when you want the animal to participate very actively I mean we're talking about the Championships Rehabilitation you know you need to motivate the right at any cost come come so ruia does whatever it takes to coax the rat to walk come on J go forward come on push them push pushti come on keep going the rat is now walking when it wants to which means the brain signal are getting through to the previously paralyzed limbs wow she's done really well yeah the rat spinal cord seems much more capable of rewiring itself than anyone expected in one of the most extensive examples observed it's been able to detour around the injury and reconnect the dormant neural network what what we observe is that the cut fibers basically they grow and deliver to this snal network below the injury enough information we don't know what kind but sufficient information from the brain to have a voluntary control what we're hearing is evidence of the Rat making the decision to walk the popping sound is a neuron firing and here she's just standing but you'll see once she starts walking there's a pretty clear pattern of the activity of the neuron with the rat stepping it's showing that the movement is voluntary that's that's really cool that was really exciting the first time that happened because you know we had this idea that the brain should be involved but it hadn't been proven come go come there's a whole team of people working and everybody's pushing the rad and everybody's oh go go go and I could hear it before it happened and I really knew okay it's going to work this time perfect wow with half of all human spinal injuries leading to Chronic paralysis Professor core's research gives New Hope to those affected so of course the next obvious and you know exciting goal is to try this type of intervention in human you know it's difficult to say what this will achieve in humans but you know it's a very promising New [Music] Path and bring it back into the atmosphere f