New sensations for spinal injuries
25 May 2004
Recent trials have shown that giving magnetic therapy to the brain can increase movement and feeling for people with spinal-cord injuries. Could this be a breakthrough treatment? Antenna investigates...
For the first time trials have shown that magnetic stimulation to the brain may help people with partial damage to their spinal cord. But how does it work?
A team of British doctors gave electromagnetic pulses to the middle of patients' heads for an hour a day over five consecutive days. After treatment all the volunteers had better movement as well as more feeling in their skin.
'We're all very excited and enthusiastic about the potential of this treatment in spinal cord injury. In the next three or four years we hope to carry out larger trials and find out more about the way it works.'
Nick Davey, brain scientist.
Nick Davey, brain scientist.
Nerve fibres from the brain.
The treatment may work like physiotherapy but instead of moving muscles it provides a work out for the patients remaining nerve cells. This increases the amount of information passed from the brain to the rest of the body.