I watched a Ted Talk that was titled " Inspiring New Thinking to Restore Function after Spinal Cord Injury" (2012) by Gregoire Courtine, a neuro-scientist who works with spinal cord injures. I chose this becauseI want to expand my knowledge on SCI and better know how to most effectively treat a SCI client one day.He started out by sharing what a SCI client told him once, this friend/ client challenged the scientists to visit the rehab facilities after leaving work so that they could see people struggling to remember how to walk, and when they leave they would go home with these people on their minds and maybe they would be able to come up with something to help them.
Next, he dove into explaining why a lesion in the spinal cord leads to paralysis. He explained how when the brain gets affected through the spinal cord it can be dormant, which is also the same when it happens to rats (this is important to remember).His mentor encouraged him to test out his theories, because Courtine had ideas of how to redirect and restore fibers in the brain, but because of his upbringing he did not know if he could share his ideas.
He gave the metaphor that the locomotive system is a car and the spinal cord is the engine (but it is turned off). He explained that you need to restart the system so you might add fuel, next you have to press the accelerator, then you have to steer the car. So his idea was to re-program the brain in a way to redeliver information so that the brain could relearn. After 10 years of research they have what he called "pharmacological cocktails" "that optimally repair the neuron to fire and to mimic the push on the pedal 'they' applied electrical stimulation on the dorsal aspect of the spinal cord", he called this process a "electrochemical neural prosthesis". Basically, this can reform the dormant part on the spinal cord to a highly functional state.
Interestingly, he then showed a rat with a SCI receiving this method and the rat was able to walk along with a treadmill after receiving this. The mice picked up speed with the treadmill, but then when it stopped so did the rat. I think what he was getting at is that the mice was aware of the environment that he was in and then able to go along with that sensation because of this locomotive state, he stated that brain played very little activity with the mice's movement. His next step was to move the rat away from the treadmill, so he decided to build a robot that supported the rat against the direction of gravity but does not facilitate locomotion in the forward direction. After a few weeks, the rat, who had paralyzing lesion in the spinal cord, was able to sprint up a stair case (amazing!). When this video came out currently one person was doing a clinical treatment with this method. Courtine understands that this is not a cure to SCI, he just promotes that this could be a piece to this complicated puzzle of SCI.
I think this Ted Talk was extremely eye-opening and presented a lot of new ideas that I have never thought of. When thinking about OT, this is very encouraging knowing brains out there are thinking this way and working towards a goal to improve quality of life with people who have SCI. As a future OT, I want to keep in mind the power of the locomotive system when working with SCI client's. I think this taught me to always think outside of the box, and not be afraid to share ideas.
References T. (2012, June 22). Inspiring New Thinking to Restore Function after Spinal Cord Injury: Gregoire Courtine at TEDxCHUV. Retrieved April 12, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta4A75as7Dc
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