BBC Focus

believe the brain has to be engaged all the time to

trigger this clinical improvement.

Why was your approach successful?
When we measured brain activity, we noticed it was
almost like patients had forgotten what it means to
have legs. Through virtual reality, we had to
reinsert that in the brain. When the concept of
walking was relearned, there was a process of
functional reorganisation of brain circuits. The
brain probably started generating new electrical
commands and tried to transmit these down the
spinal cord. My hypothesis is that since the original
trauma, even more than a decade ago, a few nerves
may have survived and just stayed there, silent. But
when we rekindled these circuits, somehow the
brain found a way to send messages through those
nerves. During training the spinal cord neurons
were hit at the same time by sensory information,
because patients were being moved by the robotic
devices when they walked. So I think this
combination triggers an important process of
‘plasticity’ – the term we use for functional
rearrangement of the brain. We are going to track
t hese patients for as long as we ca n, because we
ILLUSTRATION: RAJA LOCKEY haven’t yet found a plateau for their recovery.

OCTOBER 2016

ABOVE: Once the patients

had trained their brains

with VR, they used a robotic

exoskeleton that they could

control with their minds

BELOW: The patients wore

shirts that gave them

information about the floor,

via vibrating elements

THE LAZY

Like nothing more than putting your feet up? Well,

you might be a genius. Smart people spend more

time lost in their thought s and so are less likely to

alleviate boredom with physical activity than less

intelligent counterparts, researchers from Florida

Gulf University have found.

SINGLETONS

After looking at 800 studies on single people

carried out over the last 30 years, the University of

California’s Bella DePaulo found that single people

are more likely to feel a sense of continued growth

and development than those in relationships.

FACEBOOK PHONIES

The more our ‘Facebook selves’ differ from our true

selves, the more likely we are to be stressed,

depressed and socially isolated, say researchers at

the University of Tasmania.

CONSPIRACY THEORISTS

Take off the tinfoil hat. Chemtrails, long-lasting

streaks left by aeroplanes, are a product of climate

change and new engine designs, not part of a scheme

to spray toxic chemicals into the atmosphere, a team

at Carnegie Institution has found.

BAD MONTH

GOOD MONTH