ARTIFICIAL NERVES
Doctors of the London Institute of Psychiatry have taken a new step towards helping paraplegics to walk again. The loss of movement which confines these patients to bed or wheelchair results from a broken nerve link between brain and leg muscles, caused by damage to the spinal cord. So the doctors have been working on a form of artificial nerve to restore muscle movement. Led by Professor Giles Brindley, the team experimented with monkeys to pick up the tiny electrical signals from the brain which control leg movements. These were amplified into stronger currents and fed down artificial nerves made from special wire. The current was fed into the nerves controlling the leg muscles, at a point where they leave the bottom of the spinal cord.
Technical details of the artificial nerves are still secret, but a 8.8. C. World Service science programme reports these animal tests have been sufficiently successful for experts to forecast that the technique may be tried in humans within the next 10 years.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32524, 6 February 1971, Page 13
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170ARTIFICIAL NERVES Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32524, 6 February 1971, Page 13
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