• Rubia van den Brand, Jean-Baptiste Mignardot, Joachim von Zitzewitz, Camille Le Goff, Nicolas Fumeaux, Fabien Wagner, Marco Capogrosso, Eduardo Martin Moraud, Silvestro Micera, Brigitte Schurch, Armin Curt, Stefano Carda, Jocelyne Bloch, and Grégoire Courtine.
• International Paraplegic Foundation Chair in Spinal Cord Repair, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), SV BMI UPCOURTINE, Station 19, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. Electronic address: rubia.vandenbrand@epfl.ch.
• Ann Phys Rehabil Med. 2015 Sep 1; 58 (4): 232-237.

AbstractSpinal cord injury leads to a range of disabilities, including limitations in locomotor activity, that seriously diminish the patients' autonomy and quality of life. Electrochemical neuromodulation therapies, robot-assisted rehabilitation and willpower-based training paradigms restored supraspinal control of locomotion in rodent models of severe spinal cord injury. This treatment promoted extensive and ubiquitous remodeling of spared circuits and residual neural pathways. In four chronic paraplegic individuals, electrical neuromodulation of the spinal cord resulted in the immediate recovery of voluntary leg movements, suggesting that the therapeutic concepts developed in rodent models may also apply to humans. Here, we briefly review previous work, summarize current developments, and highlight impediments to translate these interventions into medical practice to improve functional recovery of spinal-cord-injured individuals. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

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