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#189 Spinal cord stimulation: bringing movement back to paralysed stroke survivors

4 May 2023

About this episode

Spinal cord stimulation has, for the first time, been shown to help two people with upper body paralysis due to stroke regain some arm movement

To find out how this groundbreaking technology works, New Scientist health reporter Grace Wade speaks to two researchers who helped conduct this research - Nikhil Verma at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Erin Sorenson at the University of Pittsburgh.

She also speaks to Heather, one of the study’s participants, who explains the emotional moment when she was able to open and close her hand for the first time in a decade.

To read about subjects like this and much more, you can subscribe to New Scientist magazine at newscientist.com.