3 ms·

Can you fill us in on what this actually means? "Stimulating" a nerve doesn't imply that you're bridging a severed connection or returning control to a higher c

Can you fill us in on what this actually means? "Stimulating" a nerve doesn't imply that you're bridging a severed connection or returning control to a higher center.

DSMan195276 13y ago
In some respects I don't know, as part of this tech is new (The part which allows voluntary movement). I have a feeling the patient only had a partial spinal cord injury (Though, usually with partials there is some movement retained). In a partial, the nerves themselves aren't severed, so it would then seem like the stimulation allowed the normal nerve impulses to travel over the part which was damaged and make it down to the nerve. Either way, 'stimulating' a nerve means applying an electric current to it to simulate a brain-signal. It's not as complicated as it sounds, it's not much more then sticking an electrode around the nerve and then applying an AC or DC current (Though AC and DC do actually produce slightly different effects). I've had it done to my hand before (Via some simple surface electrodes), depending on the placement and nerves which receive the current different muscles start pulling. If you stimulate the correct nerves, you can have the correct muscles pull and create Ex. a fist, or a clenching motion. Implants right now don't do a ton more then a simple 'open-close' type motion for a hand (Since the intent is not so you can type on a computer, but so you can eat by yourself or pick-up a glass, etc.)
serf 13y ago
spinal cord injuries are basically an electrical impedance (resistance) problem. FES works on different levels. For one, many FES systems cycle electricity to various muscle groups in a coordinated fashion to try to get the patients body to 'take over'. Examples of this would be with electrodes on the glutes, thighs, and around the knees in an effort to get an incomplete spinal cord patient to stand. This exploits the patients natural spasticity, along with the physiology of the body (joints can only go so many ways) to get the patient able to stand with parallel bars or in some other controlled manner. Nerve stimulation also supposedly reduces the 'trigger energy' of certain muscle sets, thus sidestepping the impedance problem. An overly simplistic example : imagine a knee muscle requires 1mW to trigger into an action, however the circuit leading to this nerve only allows for half of that due to damage adding resistance along the pathway. FES can artificially increase the energy available to that muscle set so that the trigger may be more properly interpreted, hopefully leading to a successful 'firing' of the muscle. source: i'm a quadriplegic, and FES makes me spasm into a 'stiff as a board' plank.

Can you fill us in on what this actually means? "Stimulating" a nerve doesn't imply that you're bridging a severed connection or returning control to a higher center.

DSMan195276 13y ago

In some respects I don't know, as part of this tech is new (The part which allows voluntary movement). I have a feeling the patient only had a partial spinal cord injury (Though, usually with partials there is some movement retained). In a partial, the nerves themselves aren't severed, so it would then seem like the stimulation allowed the normal nerve impulses to travel over the part which was damaged and make it down to the nerve. Either way, 'stimulating' a nerve means applying an electric current to it to simulate a brain-signal. It's not as complicated as it sounds, it's not much more then sticking an electrode around the nerve and then applying an AC or DC current (Though AC and DC do actually produce slightly different effects). I've had it done to my hand before (Via some simple surface electrodes), depending on the placement and nerves which receive the current different muscles start pulling. If you stimulate the correct nerves, you can have the correct muscles pull and create Ex. a fist, or a clenching motion. Implants right now don't do a ton more then a simple 'open-close' type motion for a hand (Since the intent is not so you can type on a computer, but so you can eat by yourself or pick-up a glass, etc.)

serf 13y ago

spinal cord injuries are basically an electrical impedance (resistance) problem. FES works on different levels. For one, many FES systems cycle electricity to various muscle groups in a coordinated fashion to try to get the patients body to 'take over'. Examples of this would be with electrodes on the glutes, thighs, and around the knees in an effort to get an incomplete spinal cord patient to stand. This exploits the patients natural spasticity, along with the physiology of the body (joints can only go so many ways) to get the patient able to stand with parallel bars or in some other controlled manner. Nerve stimulation also supposedly reduces the 'trigger energy' of certain muscle sets, thus sidestepping the impedance problem. An overly simplistic example : imagine a knee muscle requires 1mW to trigger into an action, however the circuit leading to this nerve only allows for half of that due to damage adding resistance along the pathway. FES can artificially increase the energy available to that muscle set so that the trigger may be more properly interpreted, hopefully leading to a successful 'firing' of the muscle. source: i'm a quadriplegic, and FES makes me spasm into a 'stiff as a board' plank.