Re: Human trials in 2010

[Steve Rack <srack@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Zapping Parkinson's with shocks to spinal cord yields 'dramatic change'
> Last Updated: Friday, March 20, 2009 | 5:07 PM ET
> CBC News
>
> Mice and rats immobilized with Parkinson's-like symptoms were able 
> to scurry around normally after researchers stimulated their spinal 
> cords with electricity.

....

> How does it work?
>
> In healthy people, neurons fire to different muscles at different moments.
>
> Research suggests that in Parkinson's, neurons all start firing at 
> once, like excited preschoolers all talking at the same time instead 
> of raising their hands to be called on one at a time.
>
> Spinal cord stimulation appears to send a signal up to the brain to 
> interrupt the pattern of misfiring, said Dr. Walter Koroshetz, 
> deputy director of the U.S. National Institute of Neurological 
> Disorders and Stroke, which helped fund the work.

This is interesting. The way Pd is usually explained is that we lose 
the use of neurotransmitters (mainly dopamine) therefor leaving our 
movements are either over stimulated (tremor or dyskenisia) or under 
stimulated (freezing  "poverty of movement"). I have sometimes 
wondered how impaired signals could lead to excess movement. This 
"all firing at once" model makes sense to me.
--
Steve in VT

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