Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Paralysed limbs can be heal by just a single brain cell

Recently,there was a research shows that a single brain cell can heal paralysed limb which is a good news for those who are suffering paralysis known as lock-in syndrome,which can't responds to the commands by the brain.
While the brain activity that would normally move automatic is still present, the instructions can't reach the muscles.The experiment had been done on monkeys,the scientist connect an electrodes to individual neurons inside the motor cortex in monkey's brain and record the electrical activity.These signals were then routed in real-time to a computer, and from there through a stimulator to another set of electrodes attached directly to wrist muscles that had been artificially blocked further up the arm along the normal neural pathway.Because little processing power is needed, the computer is the size of a cell phone, and can be attached to the animal's body.The monkey had already mastered a simple video game, grasping targets shown on a video screen with a control device manipulated by a single hand.It stated that that is the first study shows that neuron can control a muscle.This techniques can be tested on humans.

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