Kuroneko wrote: ↑Mon Dec 25, 2017 5:01 pm Inroads have been made in the possible treatment of spinal cord injury over the past few years:

A dogged quest to fix broken spinal cords pays off with new hope for the paralyzed Usha Lee McFarling March 30, 2016

“Spinal cord injury may no longer mean a lifelong sentence of paralysis,” said Dr. Roderic Pettigrew, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, which is funding some of Edgerton’s research.

Using currents of electricity to jump-start injured spinal cords, Edgerton and his colleagues have given nearly a dozen paralyzed men, including a college baseball star and a polar explorer, the ability to move their own limbs. The men have been able to once again control their bladders and bowels, function sexually, stand upright — and with assistance, take steps.

The Reeve Foundation plans to test the device in 36 paralyzed men and women in hopes of speeding it into widespread clinical use for the tens of thousands of people paralyzed by spinal cord injury. The tests will likely focus on patients injured within the past two or three years.

Edgerton’s most important insight grew out of his refusal to accept the deeply held consensus that the spinal cord is merely a humble messenger, carrying signals between the brain and the limbs like a telephone line. Instead, he has come to see the spinal cord as smart — an organ that can, like the brain, process information, generate patterns, adapt, and learn, even after being injured.https://www.statnews.com/2016/03/30/par ... ment-ucla/