RATS with severed spinal cords can sprint without re-growing the nerves between the injury and the brain, raising the prospect of a treatment for people with injured spines.
The key was to apply a combination of drugs and electrical impulses. “It was incredible to look at,” says neurobiologist Grégoire Courtine of the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
The spinal cord turns signals of intent from the brain into signals that propel muscles into motion. Damage to the spine can disrupt this signalling. But networks of neurons known as central pattern generators (CPGs), found in the spinal cords of rats and…
