/ News
Deep Brain Stimulation Improves Paralyzed Rat's Gait
Swiss researchers have enabled rats with severe spinal cord injuries to walk and swim by electrically stimulating a group of neurons located deep in the brain. The discovery may give researchers a new approach to treating severe spinal cord injury. The research, led by Lukas Bachmann at the Brain Research Institute at the University of Zurich, was published today in Science Translational Medicine.
In most spinal cord injuries, some nerve fibers connecting the brain to the spinal cord below the injury site remain intact, even in severe cases in which a person is paralyzed. Bachmann and his colleagues found that by stimulating a key region of the midbrain called the mesencephalic locomotor region, or MLR, the remaining intact nerve fibers could be recruited to improve walking and swimming movements in spinal-cord injured rats.
The scientists used a technique called deep brain stimulation. Electrodes implanted in the rats' midbrains sent 50 hertz cathodal pulses into their MLR regions. The extent to which the stimulation improved the rats' gait varied depending on the severity of the spinal cord injury. Rats who had lost 70 to 80 percent of their reticulospinal fibers were severely impaired, but not paralyzed—comparable to a human who can walk but has major deficits in strength and speed. Deep brain stimulation gave these rats a close-to-normal gait.
Rats that had lost more than 90 percent of their fibers were almost fully paralyzed in the hindlimbs—comparable to a human who is wheelchair-bound. Deep brain stimulation enabled these rats to move their hindlimbs while swimming.
It has been known for decades that the MLR orchestrates the parts of the brainstem that control walking. Recently scientists have used deep brain stimulation of this region to treat patients suffering from disorders such as Parkinson's disease. The new Swiss research suggests that this type of stimulation may also help people with spinal cord injuries. "I believe we have delivered the first promising indications that may help us in finding possible treatments for spinal cord injury," says Bachmann. "But much still remains to be investigated."
Bachmann says his research also provides the first indications of which parts of the brainstem may be responsible for conveying different components of walking during deep brain stimulation. "We think that areas closer to the midline in the brainstem do convey the rhythmic components of walking whereas areas more on the side convey the strength aspects of the MLR stimulation effect," Bachmann says.
Scientists have been experimenting with electrical stimulation of other parts of the central nervous system for many years in both animals and humans. In one recent and promising approach, researchers at the University of Louisville used epidural stimulation to enable a paralyzed man to stand on his own. The researchers used a 16-electrode array to stimulate the man's spinal cord below the site of his injury, essentially cutting the brain out of the equation. For more on that story, stay tuned for a feature we will post tomorrow.
Source: http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/devices/deep-brain-stimulation-improves-paralyzed-rats-gait
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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