THOUSANDS of people suffering from incontinence as a result of illness or
injury could regain control of their bladders using a technique being developed
by neuroscientists in Europe. Urinary incontinence is a common consequence of
neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis and of spinal injury. The most
common cause, called detrusor hyperreflexia, involves the bladder contracting
involuntarily even when it only contains a small volume of urine.
But Thomas Sinkjaer and his colleagues at Aalborg University in
Denmark—along with co-workers in Britain and the Netherlands—have
found a way to use the nervous system to predict when the bladder…
