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Study
finds capacity of brain stays intact despite paralysis
By Eran Karmon Of the Post-Dispatch - 12/09/2002 12:00 AM |
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The finding by a group of doctors and researchers at Washington University holds out hope that if techniques one day become available to repair severed spinal cords, patients should still have the neural capacity to control their formerly paralyzed bodies. "The big surprise is in many cases the brain was quite normally organized even though it was five years after there was any input," said Harold Burton , a professor of anatomy and neurobiology at Washington University. The brain-imaging study, which refers to one unnamed patient who was paralyzed seven years ago, will be published in the Dec. 24 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Study authors confirmed that Reeve was that patient. Reeve was paralyzed from the neck down in a 1995 horse-riding accident. He made little progress in the first five years after injury. In 2000, he started a regimen of frequent physical therapy designed by Washington University physician John W. McDonald. He has since astonished doctors by developing a crude sense of touch over most of his body as well as an ability to move most of his joints slightly when submersed in water and aided by a physical therapist. He can even consistently wiggle his left index finger back and forth slightly without any help. While Reeve's body was making strides, doctors wanted to know if parts of his brain no longer receiving sensory input were staying active. They scanned the areas of Reeve's brain responsible for sense of touch while holding a "rather potent" massage vibrator to his left hand and left foot and to see if Reeve's brain activity was similar to a healthy volunteer's. They also had Reeve move his left index finger while scanning parts of the brain that control movement. The parts of the brain controlling movement seemed almost completely normal, said Maurizio Corbetta, head of the stroke and brain injury rehabilitation program at Washington University and leader of the brain-imaging study. Some small changes were seen in parts of the brain involving the sense of touch, though. In particular, the area of the brain wired to feel touch in the face had grown and taken over much of the area responsible for sense of touch in the hands. The two areas are next to each other in the brain, and it's common for areas that are no longer receiving input to be colonized by nearby active brain areas. Reeve's face isn't paralyzed, so it's still sending sensory signals to his brain. Still, doctors expected to see greater differences between Reeve and the healthy patient because it had been so long since Reeve's accident. Corbetta said that the tests showed that some strands of Reeve's spinal cord were still intact and keeping contact - however slight - between his body and brain. He said that most complete spinal cord injury patients still had some unsevered fibers in their spinal cords even though there was no clinical indication of feeling or movement. Tests like the one Reeve underwent possibly could be used to test whether other injured patients could make a partial recovery like Reeve's. But studies on just one patient cannot say whether brain scans are predictive of future recovery in other patients, Corbetta said. Reporter Eran Karmon: E-mail: ekarmon@post-dispatch.comPhone: 314-340-8296 This article is reprinted from the
St. Louis Post Dispatch and has appeared in the 12/9/2002
ans 12/10/2002
issues. Click on the respective date for the original article
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