“'We’re entering a really exciting area where we can develop all sorts of very complicated technologies that can actually have biomedical applications and improve the quality of life for people,' says bioengineer Grégoire Courtine of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. 'It’s a revolution.'
This was a big year for prosthetic parts, both in and out of the lab. Athletes in London for the Paralympics and the Olympics sprinted on high-tech carbon blades and hurled javelins while balancing on the microprocessor-controlled C-Leg. People in wheelchairs used battery-powered robotic suits to keep their lower limbs in shape. A young man who lost his right leg in a motorcycle accident climbed the 103 flights of stairs in Chicago’s Willis Tower with a thought-controlled limb. That technology is still in development. But some bionic add-ons are starting to come out of the lab and into the clinic for the first time, though costs remain prohibitive for many potential users...
Work by Courtine and colleagues has [also] hinted at a different kind of sci-fi–like future — one with no need for bionics. Their research showed the potential of restoring function to limbs without using prosthetics at all. Rats paralyzed by spinal cord injuries were able to walk, run and even climb stairs after weeks of treatment combining drugs and electric shocks to the spine with physical therapy on treadmills (SN: 6/30/12, p. 5). But it wasn’t just technology that made the feat possible; the research showed the importance of that intangible thing called motivation. The rats who learned to walk were the ones that really wanted it; those trained without a tempting treat never learned to walk."
Cr: ScienceNews.org