- cross-posted to:
- science@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- science@lemmy.world
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15666607
Non-invasive zaps to the spinal cord can treat paralysis—but no one knows why
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Just because no one knows how it works doesn’t mean you can’t perfect it’s use with trial and error.
But we can fucking guess right? Like maybe the linking network gets a fuckin hint…“the leg is this way you retard!” But in a shock.
considering how synapses in the brain get stronger if both neurons fire, and how paralysis is most of the time caused by a severance in the connectivity of 2 (or way more) neurons…
Yeah this looks like it could be the reason why
P.S: This comment is made with not much knowledge in anatomy (past highschool level), take with a shaker of salt
Yup my comment is also made with very little to no googling. I’m sure there’s a big reason why we … probably because you can’t be testing things on actual people. It would be horrible to watch someone explain how they figured out that the spinal chord does X because when you shock Z you get a twitch on Y. It’s all the twitching.
Good news, nobody knows why this works!
Just kidding, it’s better than no news!
Most of current medicine falls into the same cayegory. Like allergy shots. Trail and error. Most diagnosis by general practitioners are just, "well people who report X, usually have Y. And bacterial vs viral… just a gut feel based on past patients who either responded well to antibiotics or not. Never mind that the vast majority never report back even.
Yup.
I had the idea that electricity had been tried for paralysis, and I looked it up and ben franklin did experiments to try and cure it with shocks.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16717219/
I wonder if the difference was targeting? The type of paralysis? The podcast Sawbones did an episode on the history of electricity in medicine that was pretty interesting. I might relisten.
