Live data from Hacker News

Nerve transfer restores hand function, elbow extension in paralyzed patients

sciencedaily.com

11–20 of 62 posts

Re: Nerve transfer restores hand function, elbow extension in paralyzed patients

#11
"Australian surgeons attached functioning nerves above the spinal injury to paralysed nerves below the injury."

How was that done, exactly? Were they just sort of clamped together? Some sort of special bonding device that encouraged synapse formation?

Re: Nerve transfer restores hand function, elbow extension in paralyzed patients

#12
post #6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if the result is incorrect at first, the brain is adaptable and will simply remap to correct the bad wiring. There are videos on youtube of people who put on googles that invert the view of the world upside down. After a few weeks/months of adaption, they can live in that condition as normal.

I seem to have awareness that people have redirected the auditory and visual cortexes as an experiment and found that sight and hearing were recovered eventually? Unfortunately I can't find a source to verify this so hoping someone with better knowledge could confirm that this is just how plastic the brain can be?

There also an experiment where they remove the rods and cones of mice and replace them with light sensitive proteins from some bacteria, and the mice achieve some level of sight after a short period of time. Neuroplasticity is crazy.

Edit: algae not bacteria, here’s a link I found https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4817926/

Re: Nerve transfer restores hand function, elbow extension in paralyzed patients

#15
post #4
post #2

How exactly does a nerve transfer work? I always imagined that certain control and reception signals would have their dedicated nerve connections, such that rewiring from a transplanted nerve would jumble up the wiring and give 'incorrect' results.

Even if the result is incorrect at first, the brain is adaptable and will simply remap to correct the bad wiring. There are videos on youtube of people who put on googles that invert the view of the world upside down. After a few weeks/months of adaption, they can live in that condition as normal.

I wonder how similar that is to the effect of the "backwards bike" shown in "Smarter every day": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0

It seems like there's a very deep idea of how a bike should work and instead of learning the new behaviour bit by bit the new idea just "clicks" at some point. I've heard people with up/down flipped goggles also say it's quite sudden change. I'm curious if it's similar for reconnected nerves?

Re: Nerve transfer restores hand function, elbow extension in paralyzed patients

#16
post #6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if the result is incorrect at first, the brain is adaptable and will simply remap to correct the bad wiring. There are videos on youtube of people who put on googles that invert the view of the world upside down. After a few weeks/months of adaption, they can live in that condition as normal.

I seem to have awareness that people have redirected the auditory and visual cortexes as an experiment and found that sight and hearing were recovered eventually? Unfortunately I can't find a source to verify this so hoping someone with better knowledge could confirm that this is just how plastic the brain can be?

I kind of doubt that you can do that because blind people still use their visual cortex when they make out the shape of objects by tough, or when they navigate the world, so I would assume the visual cortex is a specialized "hardware".

Re: Nerve transfer restores hand function, elbow extension in paralyzed patients

#17

"Australian surgeons attached functioning nerves above the spinal injury to paralysed nerves below the injury." How was that done, exactly? Were they just sort of clamped together? Some sort of special bonding device that encouraged synapse formation?

BIC lighter

Re: Nerve transfer restores hand function, elbow extension in paralyzed patients

#18
post #8
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of stuff in biology is "stick it in sees if it works" kind of stuff anyway. Who knows what will happen in 20 years.

that's how most things reproduce ><

You made my day.

Re: Nerve transfer restores hand function, elbow extension in paralyzed patients

#20

"Australian surgeons attached functioning nerves above the spinal injury to paralysed nerves below the injury." How was that done, exactly? Were they just sort of clamped together? Some sort of special bonding device that encouraged synapse formation?

I can imagine how it went down though.

Stevo> "So barry, whats going on sunday avo, you wanna come over for a barbie".

Barry> Yeah, Nah Sorry mate, i got that thing at work, i'm fixing up a blokes arm.

Stevo> Just put it in a sling, no problems.

Barry> Nah this poor fella can't feel anything beneath his elbow!

Stevo> But all the bits are working

Barry> well they should be, just use some superglue to hold the bits and place, she'll be right ?

Post reply on HN