Paralyzed Man Regains Hand Function After Breakthrough Nerve Rewiring Procedure 56
An anonymous reader writes "A 71-year-old man who became paralyzed from the waist down and lost all use of both hands in a 2008 car accident has regained motor function in his fingers after doctors rewired his nerves to bypass the damaged ones in a pioneering surgical procedure, according to a case study published on Tuesday."
Qaelia sensory mapping (Score:5, Insightful)
"The brain has to be trained to think, 'OK, I used to bend my elbow with this nerve, and now I use it to pinch' [...] it's more of a mental game that patients have to play with themselves."
I love imagining just how this would feel. Does the wiring ever become automatic and abstract in the same way that we normally come to experience motor movements(not thinking about pulling this muscle, relaxing that one, but just that we want to move our leg)? Or will he for the rest of his life feel like he is trying to move a specific forearm muscle group when he scratches his head?
Re:No dexterity in the fingers (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I'm not a doctor (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:No dexterity in the fingers (Score:4, Insightful)
Conversely the brain's body map is actually incredibly malleable anyway - since it expands and contracts to deal with tools you're using and transitioning to or from. People wince when they scrape their car, because in a very real sense they feel like they hit a part of themselves.
With time (and well, it's definitely a permanent part of him) I suspect he could recover full function to the point of not needing to think about it.