A Tool for Pain Relief
Acute and chronic pain affect at least 100 million U.S. adults and cost the nation up to $630 billion in medical treatment and lost productivity annually.
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The mind-reading devices that can free paralysed muscles
Technologies that restore movement and the sense of touch are helping people to overcome the physical effects of stroke and spinal-cord injury.
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When Your Bladder or Bowels Control Your Life
Everybody has to go. For those of us with neurological conditions like spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, or even complications from a stroke, you can often feel tethered to the toilet. In fact, bladder and bowel control consistently rank among the most important functions to regain among people living with spinal cord injury, according to…
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Brain health collaboration wins grants
A city-wide initiative that aims to make Northeast Ohio an epicenter of brain health research and care has won $1.5 million in support from The Cleveland Foundation. Read full story…
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Hand-in-Glove Rehab
New electrical stimulation therapy may improve hand function after stroke Read full story…
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A paralyzed monkey can walk again, thanks to a wireless ‘brain-computer’ interface
A new report in Nature gives hopeful news about how we could recover from paralyzing spinal cord injuries in the future. Researchers describe a rhesus monkey regaining the use of its leg just six days after a paralyzing injury. The key is a wireless “brain-computer” interface, connecting an implant in the monkey’s brain to an…
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Unraveling How a Brain Works, Block by High-tech Block
Psychologists have long used building blocks to assess cognitive skills. But researchers at Case Western Reserve University are imbedding the blocks with technology that may provide a clearer view of problems a child or adult may suffer due to developmental disabilities, brain trauma or dementia. Read full story…
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The Neuroscientist Who’s Building a Better Memory for Humans
In an episode of the dystopian near-future series, Black Mirror, a small, implantable device behind the ear grants the ability to remember, access, and replay every moment of your life in perfect detail, like a movie right before your eyes. Read full story…
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Wireless Tech Enables Paralyzed Monkey to Walk Again
A Swiss research team reported in Nature this week that they wired a monkey to walk again on a leg that had been paralyzed, a mere six days after the paralyzing spinal cord injury. The treatment? A brain-computer interface connecting the monkey’s motor cortex to an electrical stimulation device on the spine. With the device,…
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New understanding of neural language gives amputees ability to discern light touch to intense pressure
Electrical stimulation mimics natural touch, enabling amputees to feel a range of intensity that allows them to hold a child’s hand, precisely operate machinery and more Read full story…
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Brain chips let a paralyzed man feel touch through a robotic arm
Nathan Copeland hasn’t been able to move his legs or hands since he broke his neck in a car accident more than a decade ago. But now that scientists have implanted four chips in his brain, Copeland can control a robotic arm with his mind and feel when someone touches its fingers. This is the…
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Brain Implant Allows Man to Feel Touch on Robotic Hand
At the end of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker feels when a needle pricks his newly-installed bionic hand. Researchers report today in the journal Science Translational Medicine that they can do something similar: stimulating regions of a human test subject’s brain with electrodes can recreate the perception of touch in a robotic hand. Read…
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CWRU and Halyard Health Partnering to Advance Non-narcotic Pain Management
CLEVELAND and ALPHARETTA, Ga. – What if eliminating physical pain was a matter of flipping a switch to block it? No drug needed. When it’s time to stop the block, just turn it off. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University hope to eventually treat chronic or acute pain by using energy-based neuromodulation technology, which is…
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New electrical stimulation therapy may improve hand function after stroke
New electrical stimulation therapy may improve hand function after stroke DALLAS, Sept. 8, 2016 — A new electrical stimulation therapy helped stroke survivors with hand weakness improve hand dexterity more than an existing stimulation technique, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke. About 800,000 people in the United States have strokes…
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In Rehab Clinics, a Possible New Role for Brain-Computer Interfaces
Paralyzed people regained some motion after operating a brain-controlled robotic exoskeleton. Learn more…
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Researchers discover moving, electrically “silent” source initiates brain waves
Finding may help in understanding memory formation, treating epilepsy. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University discovered a new way that brain waves spread through the hippocampus—a possible step toward understanding and treating epilepsy. Read more…
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CWRU researchers laying groundwork for new type of pain relief
A researcher at Case Western Reserve University has been awarded a four-year, $2.4 million federal grant to uncover how high-frequency electrical stimulation to the spinal cord reduces or eliminates chronic pain. Read more…
Dr. Kevin Kilgore receives $2.4 million federal grant
A researcher at Case Western Reserve University received a $2.4 million federal grant to figure out why high-frequency electrical stimulation to the spinal cord reduces or eliminates chronic pain. Read more…
A Prosthetic Hand That Can Feel
An innovative prosthetic hand is allowing people to feel again Igor Spetic, 49, lost his right hand in a work related accident five years ago. But on Oct. 9, he got to bring home an innovative prosthetic hand for the first time, one that not only has more precise gripping, but gives him back his…
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Artificial Skin that is Sensitive to Touch
New Artificial Skin Is Sensitive to Touch and Feels Changes in Pressure It’s thin, flexible, made of organic material, and understands a range of pressures. Just like your fingertips. In fact, patches of this artificial skin already have been painted on mechanical hand-like prosthesis. Read more…
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P. Hunter Peckham, PhD presented Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine’s highest honor
P. Hunter Peckham, PhD was presented the 2015 Case Western Reserve Medal for Health Science Innovation, the School of Medicine’s highest honor, for his efforts in advancing research, education, and care in extraordinary ways.
Restoring touch to a lost limb
Researchers in Cleveland are adding a sense of touch to prosthetics that will allow amputees to feel again A team of researchers at the Cleveland VA Medical Center are working on a breakthrough technology that will return the sense of touch to those who have lost a hand. Read more…
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Scene Podcast: Dr. Jay Alberts, Director of the Cleveland Clinic’s Concussion Center
This week, host Craig Lyndall is joined by Dr. Jay Alberts, the director of the Cleveland Clinic’s Concussion Center. The Clinic is part of a national symposium being hosted in Cleveland in June on concussions (June 23-24 at the Global Center for Health and Innovation, Concussion: A National Challenge, hosted by the National Academy of…
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Robots, hydroponic plants and other innovations showcased Friday at Case Western Reserve University
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Research ShowCASE 2015, an annual one-day presentation of more than 400 posters, videos, prototypes and live demonstrations, is scheduled for Friday at Case Western Reserve University. Displays in the Veale Convocation, Recreation and Athletic Center showcase innovation and research by faculty, staff and students. The event, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.,…
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