Abstract
Spinal cord injury alters the communication between the brain and spinal cord, leading to unrecoverable neurological deficits, including the partial of complete loss of movement.
Dr Courtine and his team have identified gateways that enable electrical spinal-cord stimulation to modulate the circuits that produce movement.
This understanding translated into neuromodulation technologies that target these gateways to restore motor functions.
Combined with rehabilitative training, these targeted neuromodulation strategies restored walking and improved neurological recovery in people with spinal cord injury; but the same strategy may also enable the recovery of arm and hand movements.
The prize funding will allow him to study this possibility.
