Non-invasive electrical stimulation of cervical spinal cord to facilitate arm & hand functional recovery in incomplete traumatic cervical spinal cord

Injuries to the spinal cord can lead to paralysis of the arms and hands with devastating consequences for quality of life. This collaborative project aims to develop a new approach to restoring function to the upper-limb using painless electrical stimulation of the spinal cord delivered through the skin. The novel stimulation patterns will be developed and optimised in animal experiments before testing with human volunteers suffering from spinal cord injury. We hope to understand the mechanisms by which transcutaneous spinal stimulation can boost the excitability of the nervous system and enhance neuroplasticity, leading to lasting beneficial effects on everyday tasks for those suffering with upper-limb paralysis.

Manual dexterity is indispensable for carrying out the vast majority of our normal daily activities, ranging from object manipulation to nonverbal communication. Damage to the connectome controlling the upper extremities inflicts devastating consequences, as the patient's lifestyle becomes dependent on supportive devices, which drastically reduce their freedom to perform activities of daily living. From all the physio-pathological symptoms developed following a cervical SCI, patients have emphasized a high priority for finding therapies to restore arm/hand function. Bioengineering is opening a new opportunity in restorative neuroscience. These technologies aim to facilitate or to enhance residual function without the need for long-distance regeneration of severed axons. This project will investigate a new transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation technique that aims to boost spinal cord excitability and facilitate beneficial plasticity in order to produce lasting improvement to upper-limb function using a non-invasive approach. A combination of animal and patient studies will be used to optimise stimulation parameters, explore the mechanisms of facilitation and demonstrate this exciting new technique.

If successful, the results of this project will support the development of a new treatment to improve manual dexterity in cervical spinal cord inured patients. The experiments will further present a comprehensive, systematic and detailed analysis of the mechanisms underlying the recovery and thus provide an indispensable guideline for the application of stimulation-based therapy to spinal cord-injured patients.