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A man and a woman - who became wheelchair-bound after spinal cord injuries more than two decades back have now been able to walk and move again with the help of an innovative deep-brain stimulation technique.

According to a news release from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), in Switzerland, Wolfgang Jäger - who was in his early 30s when a skiing accident left him immovable in 2006, has now been able to become independent once again. “Last year on vacation, it was no problem to walk a couple of steps down and back to the sea using the stimulation,” said Jäger, now 54 years old.

“I can also reach things in my cupboards in the kitchen,” he added.

A team from EPFL and Lausanne University Hospital say that zapping the brain in an "unexpected" locale - the lateral hypothalamus has been able to help Jäger and one other woman with the same injury regain movement.

Findings of this research, published earlier this week in the journal Nature Medicine, involved deep brain stimulation through an implantation of electrodes into specific brain areas to help direct neural activity. It has long been used to treat illnesses like Parkinson's disease and tremors.

However, according to the scientists, it is only recently that scientists discovered that the lateral hypothalamus might play a key role in motor skills. Before this, neurologists used to think that this tiny brain region was only involved in arousal and feeding mechanisms.

According to the Lausanne team of scientists, they tried giving the lateral hypothalamus a role in the recovery of movement in folks with damaged spinal cords. Firstly, they pursued experiments using mice. The researchers said those preclinical studies helped them to “establish the precise circuits involved in the recovery [of walking]" in the rodents.

Later, they tried the same steps in people who were paralyzed by injury to their spinal cord – using the deep brain stimulation of the lateral hypothalamus. Brain scans were used to guide and implant electrodes in the brains of two fully awake patients.

“Once the electrode was in place and we performed the stimulation, the first patient immediately said, ‘I feel my legs.’ When we increased the stimulation, she said, ‘I feel the urge to walk!’" said Dr. Jocelyne Bloch, study co-leader and EPFL professor and neurosurgeon.

"This real-time feedback confirmed we had targeted the correct region, even if this region had never been associated with the control of the legs in humans," she said. "At this moment, I knew that we were witnessing an important discovery for the anatomical organization of brain functions."

Bloch and study co-leader Gregoire Courtine said they are extremely positive about their new discovery.

“This research demonstrates that the brain is needed to recover from paralysis," said Coutine, a professor of neuroscience at EPFL. "Surprisingly, the brain is not able to take full advantage of the neuronal projections that survive after a spinal cord injury. Here, we found how to tap into a small region of the brain that was not known to be involved in the production of walking in order to engage these residual connections and augment neurological recovery in people with spinal cord injury."

While the scientists say just two patients are an incredibly small study group, more research is needed and will be conducted soon. Scientists say studies to come will focus on combining deep brain stimulation with other technologies such as spinal implants, to better help patients get moving again.

“Integrating our two approaches -- brain and spinal stimulation -- will offer a more comprehensive recovery strategy for patients with spinal cord injuries,” Courtine said.

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