Juan de los Reyes Aguilar

According to a study published in Nature Medicine, deep brain stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus improves walking and promotes recovery in humans and rodents with spinal cord injuries. In humans, the authors tested this technique on two patients who relied on assistive devices and had difficulty walking; both showed improved performance in the ten-meter and six-minute walking tests. Combined with rehabilitation, the patients experienced recovery that persisted even after the deep brain stimulation was turned off.

A neuroprosthetic interface allows a bionic leg to respond to the nervous system of amputees to make walking faster and more natural, says a study published in Nature Medicine. The clinical trial involved 14 people with below-knee amputations: seven with a surgically attached bionic leg compared to seven without the interface.

A team of researchers has developed a device that would allow individuals with amputations to perceive and respond to temperature by providing thermal information from the tip of the prosthetic finger to the amputee's stump. The device, called "MiniTouch," featured in the journal Med, can be integrated into commercially available prosthetic limbs and does not require surgery. The authors demonstrate that, thanks to the thermosensitive prosthetic hand, a 57-year-old male with below-elbow amputation was able to distinguish and manually classify objects of different temperatures and perceive bodily contact with other humans.

Research published in the journal Nature identifies the neurons that enabled nine paralysed patients to walk again after electrical stimulation of the spinal cord.