Nerve signals may still get through (Image: Simone Becchetti/Getty)
Paralysis may no longer mean life in a wheelchair. A man who is paralysed from the trunk down has recovered the ability to stand and move his legs unaided thanks to training with an electrical implant.
Andrew Meas of Louisville, Kentucky, says it has changed his life (see “I suddenly noticed I can move my pinkie“, below). The stimulus provided by the implant is thought to have either strengthened persistent “silent” connections across his damaged spinal cord or even created new ones, allowing him to move even when the implant is switched off.…
