Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

EPIDURAL STIMULATION

A giant step for spinal cord injury research

Nature Neuroscience volume 21, pages 1647–1648 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

The combination of spinal epidural stimulation and physical therapy is restoring walking function to people with spinal cord injury. With intensive rehabilitation, some participants are able to walk in their communities during stimulation and even regain control over previously paralyzed movement in the absence of stimulation.

Wagner and colleagues1 demonstrate for the first time that patterned electrical stimulation of the spinal cord surface (termed epidural stimulation) enabled three people with spinal cord injury to walk across the laboratory with minimal assistance. Two of these participants were even able to walk in their communities using a wheeled walker for balance and safety.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Wagner, F., Mignardot, J. B. & Le Goff-Mignardot, C. G. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0649-2 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Formento, E. et al. Nat. Neurosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0262-6 (2018).

  3. Gill, M. L. et al. Nat. Med. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-018-0175-7 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Angeli, C. A. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 379, 1244–1250 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Rejc, E., Angeli, C. A., Atkinson, D. & Harkema, S. J. Sci. Rep. 7, 13476 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Inanici, F. et al. IEEE Trans. Neural Syst. Rehabil. Eng. 26, 1272–1278 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Gad, P. et al. J. Neurotrauma 35, 2145–2158 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Taccola, G., Sayenko, D., Gad, P., Gerasimenko, Y. & Edgerton, V. R. Prog. Neurobiol. 160, 64–81 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Moritz, C. T. Neurotherapeutics 15, 628–634 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Depts. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rehabilitation Medicine, Physiology & Biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Chet Moritz

Authors
  1. Chet Moritz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chet Moritz.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Moritz, C. A giant step for spinal cord injury research. Nat Neurosci 21, 1647–1648 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0264-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0264-4

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing