A spinal cord injury (SCI) disrupts communication between the brain and spinal cord, leading to partial or complete paralysis. But recent breakthroughs suggest an unexpected brain region could play a critical role in restoring mobility.

Wolfgang Jäger was in his 30s when a skiing accident left the young Austrian wheelchair-bound from a spinal cord injury. Fast-forward to today, where an innovative deep-brain stimulation technique is helping the 54-year-old Jäger walk and move again.

In this clinical trial, the participants received deep brain stimulation (DBS) in a region of the brain called the lateral hypothalamus (LH).

Deep brain stimulation to the lateral hypothalamus has improved lower limb movements in two people with partial spinal cord injury.

Scientists have discovered a brain stimulation technique that could help spinal cord injury patients walk more easily

Two people who were paralysed have been able to walk again after being implanted with electrodes in their brains.

In 2006, Wolfgang Jäger was in his 30s when a skiing accident left the young Austrian wheelchair-bound from a spinal cord injury. Fast-forward to today, where an innovative deep-brain stimulation technique is helping the 54-year-old Jäger walk and move again.

Applying deep brain stimulation to a different region in the brain than has been used for other conditions improved the recovery of lower limb movements in two patients with severe spinal cord injuries,

Exactly which bits of the brain are involved in this adaptation is not clear. But, in a paper just published in Nature Medicine, a group of researchers led by Jocelyne Bloch of Lausanne University Hospital and Grégoire Courtine at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne shed some light.