Research finds if brain and nerve stimulation help persons with spinal cord injury

New York, Jan. 28 -- : In animal trials, a nerve stimulation technique developed at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University is showing promise and may someday help people with spinal cord injuries regain the use of their arms.

According to Jason Carmel, MD, PhD, a neurologist at Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian who is heading the research, "the stimulation technique targets the neural system connections spared by injury, enabling them to take up part of the lost function."

The results were released in the journal Brain.

In 1999, when Carmel was a second-year medical student at Columbia, his identical twin brother suffered a spinal cord injury, paralyzing him from the chest down and limiting the u...