Robotic Treadmill Training Helps Retrain Brain to Walk After Sci

Dallas, TX, 11/30/05.
People who have suffered partial paralysis from spinal-cord injury show increased activity in the part of the brain responsible for muscle movement and motor learning after 12 weeks of training on a robotic treadmill, according to a report recently published by UT Southwestern Medical Center physical therapists led by Dr. Patricia Winchester.
Their study, will be published in the December issue of the journal Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, is the first to demonstrate that locomotor training can promote activation in the parts of the brain involved in walking in spinal-cord injury patients.
The results suggest that rehabilitation strategies could be designed based in part upon whether or not they engage the areas of the brain necessary for walking.
Locomotor training can promote activation in the parts of the brain involved in walking in spinal-cord injury patients. Additionally, the findings suggest that a diagnostic technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), used by the researchers to measure the activation of these brain areas, may be useful in predicting which individuals will benefit from a particular intervention after spinal-cord injury.

The Shigley Law Firm represents plaintiffs in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases statewide in Georgia, and in other states subject to the multijurisdictional practice and pro hac vice rules in each state. Ken Shigley was designated as a “SuperLawyer” in Atlanta Magazine and one of the “Legal Elite” in Georgia Trend Magazine. He is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, Chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Liability Institute and former chair of the Georgia Insurance Law Institute. He particularly focuses on cases arising from truck wrecks and accidents (tractor trailers truck wrecks, semi truck wrecks,18 wheeler truck wrecks, big rig truck wrecks, log truck wrecks, dump truck wrecks).