Disability News

June 9, 2025

Top Headlines

Brain Training Game Offers New Hope for Drug-Free Pain Management

June 2, 2025 — A trial of an interactive game that trains people to alter their brain waves has shown promise as a treatment for nerve pain -- offering hope for a new generation of drug-free ...

Hand2: Positional Code That Allows Axolotls to Regrow Limbs Found

May 21, 2025 — With its fascinating ability to regrow entire limbs and internal organs, the Mexican axolotl is the ideal model for studying regeneration. Scientists have now found a factor that tells cells which part of the arm to regenerate -- and used it to ...

Scientists Design Gene Delivery Systems for Cells in the Brain and Spinal Cord

May 21, 2025 — Research teams have created a versatile set of gene delivery systems that can reach different neural cell types in the human brain and spinal cord with exceptional accuracy. These delivery systems ...

Clinical Trial Shows Improvements for Spinal Cord Injuries

May 21, 2025 — Researchers demonstrated unprecedented rates of recovery for spinal cord injuries. Individuals with incomplete spinal cord injury safely received a combination of stimulation of a nerve in the neck with progressive, individualized rehabilitation. ...

Experimental Painkiller Could Outsmart Opioids -- Without the High

May 19, 2025 — A study shows a non-opioid pain reliever blocks pain at its source -- calming specific nerve signals that send pain messages to the brain. In mice, the compound SBI-810 eased pain from surgery, bone fractures, and nerve injury without causing ...

New Auditory Brainstem Implant Shows Early Promise

May 16, 2025 — Investigators are developing a new type of auditory brainstem implant that is designed to be soft, and flexible and address limitations of models currently in use. These implants may one day benefit people who can't receive a cochlear implant, such ...

Eldercare Robot Helps People Sit and Stand, and Catches Them If They Fall

May 13, 2025 — Engineers built E-BAR, a mobile robot designed to physically support the elderly and prevent them from falling as they move around their homes. E-BAR acts as a set of robotic handlebars that follows a person from behind, allowing them to walk ...

Obesity a Leading Cause of Knee Osteoarthritis

May 7, 2025 — New research reveals that obesity, having a knee injury and occupational risks such as shift work and lifting heavy loads are primary causes of knee ...

PTSD Patients Show Long-Term Benefits With Vagus Nerve Stimulation

May 5, 2025 — In a recent clinical study, patients with treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder were symptom-free up to six months after completing traditional therapy paired with vagus nerve ...

Trouble Hearing in Noisy Places and Crowded Spaces? Researchers Say New Algorithm Could Help Hearing Aid Users

Apr. 28, 2025 — BU researchers develop a brain-inspired algorithm that can help people with hearing loss pick out conversations in noisy, crowded ...

Brain Decoder Controls Spinal Cord Stimulation

Apr. 28, 2025 — A lab develops brain wave decoder that may help in spinal cord injury ...

Combining Signals Could Make for Better Control of Prosthetics

Apr. 24, 2025 — Combining two different kinds of signals could help engineers build prosthetic limbs that better reproduce natural movements, according to a new study. A combination of electromyography and force myography is more accurate at predicting hand ...

Latest Headlines

updated 12:03pm EDT

Building 'Cellular Bridges' for Spinal Cord Repair After Injury

Apr. 21, 2025 — Capitalizing on the flexibility of tiny cells inside the body's smallest blood vessels may be a powerful spinal cord repair strategy, new research ...

Insomnia and Sleep Medication Use Connected to Disability in Older Adults

Apr. 18, 2025 — For adults over the age of 65, higher levels of both insomnia symptoms and sleep medication use were associated with higher risk of disability a year later, according to a new ...

Soft Brainstem Implant Delivers High-Resolution Hearing

Apr. 18, 2025 — A team has developed a soft, thin-film ABI. The device uses micrometer-scale platinum electrodes embedded in silicone, forming a pliable array just a fraction of a millimeter thick. This novel ...

Estrogen and Progesterone Stimulate the Body to Make Opioids

Apr. 3, 2025 — Female hormones can suppress pain by making immune cells near the spinal cord produce opioids, a new study has found. This stops pain signals before they get to the brain. The discovery could help ...

How the Brain and Inner Ear Are Formed

Apr. 3, 2025 — Researchers have developed a method that shows how the nervous system and sensory organs are formed in an embryo. By labeling stem cells with a genetic 'barcode', they have been able to follow the ...

Mouse Study Identifies Shared Genes Involved in Hearing and Vision Regeneration

Mar. 31, 2025 — The same genes could hold the key to regenerating cells in the ear and eye, according to a new mouse study. Researchers focused on a group of ...

Retinal Therapy May Restore Lost Vision

Apr. 2, 2025 — Researchers have successfully developed a novel drug to restore vision. The treatment method restores vision through retinal nerve ...

Terahertz Imaging: Breakthrough in Non-Invasive Cochlear Visualization

Mar. 27, 2025 — Researchers have discovered a groundbreaking use of terahertz (THz) imaging to visualize cochlear structures in mice, offering non-invasive, high-resolution diagnostics. By creating 3D ...

Stroke Rehabilitation Drug Repairs Brain Damage

Mar. 18, 2025 — A new study has discovered what researchers say is the first drug to fully reproduce the effects of physical stroke rehabilitation in model mice, following from human ...

Study Highlights Noninvasive Hearing Aid

Mar. 13, 2025 — A study highlights a new approach in addressing conductive hearing loss. A team of scientists has designed a new type of hearing aid that not only improves hearing but also offers a safe, ...

Robotics and Spinal Stimulation Restore Movement in Paralysis

Mar. 12, 2025 — Scientists have developed an approach that combines rehabilitation robotics with spinal cord stimulation to restore movement in people with spinal cord injuries. The technology enhances ...

Paralyzed Man Moves Robotic Arm With His Thoughts

Mar. 6, 2025 — Researchers have enabled a man who is paralyzed to control a robotic arm through a device that relays signals from his brain to a computer. He was able to grasp, move and drop objects just by ...

Artificial Muscles for Tremor Suppression

Mar. 6, 2025 — Scientists have developed a biorobotic arm that can mirror human tremors, such as those experienced by individuals that live with Parkinson's disease. Artificial muscles on either side of the ...

Feeling Is Believing: Bionic Hand 'Knows' What It's Touching, Grasps Like a Human

Mar. 5, 2025 — Engineers have developed a pioneering prosthetic hand that can grip plush toys, water bottles, and other everyday objects like a human, carefully conforming and adjusting its grasp to avoid damaging ...

Innovative Animal Model for Studying Limb Spasticity

Mar. 3, 2025 — Researchers have made a significant advancement in the field of spinal cord injury research, developing a novel optogenetic mouse model that could lead to improved treatments for limb ...

The Brain Perceives Unexpected Pain More Strongly

Feb. 21, 2025 — Researchers used visual threat manipulation in the virtual reality environment and thermal stimulation to investigate how the brain perceives pain. They found that the brain perceives pain more ...

Epidural Steroid Injections for Chronic Back Pain

Feb. 12, 2025 — Scientists have developed a new systematic review to summarize for neurologists and other clinicians the evidence for epidural steroid injections and whether they reduce pain and disability for ...

Born to Heal: Why Babies Recover, but Adults Scar, After Heart Damage

Feb. 11, 2025 — Newborns with heart complications can rely on their newly developed immune systems to regenerate cardiac tissues, but adults aren't so lucky. After a heart attack, most adults struggle to ...

Spinal Cord Stimulation Restores Neural Function, Targets Key Feature of Progressive Neurodegenerative Disease

Feb. 5, 2025 — Boosting communication between the spinal nerves and the muscles using the spinal cord stimulation reverses spinal muscle atrophy (SMA) progression and could be applied to other motoneuron diseases, ...

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Researchers Uncover New Complexities in Human Hearing

Jan. 27, 2025 — Physicists have discovered a sophisticated, previously unknown set of 'modes' within the human ear that put important constraints on how the ear amplifies faint sounds, tolerates noisy ...

Researchers Map the Brain's Self-Healing Abilities After Stroke

Jan. 24, 2025 — A new study sheds light on one of the most severe consequences of stroke: damage to the brain's 'cables'-- the so-called nerve fibers -- which leads to permanent ...

Progress and Challenges in Brain Implants

Jan. 24, 2025 — A scientific team looks at the progress and challenges in the research and development of brain implants. New achievements in the field of this technology are seen as a source of hope for many ...

mRNA-Activated Blood Clots Could Cushion the Blow of Osteoarthritis

Jan. 22, 2025 — Following the lead of previous work on mRNA-based vaccines, therapies for spinal cord injuries and more, the method relies upon mineral-coated microparticles to deliver mRNA that encodes for ...

'Unprecedented' Level of Control Allows Person Without Use of Limbs to Operate Virtual Quadcopter

Jan. 21, 2025 — A brain-computer interface, surgically placed in a research participant with tetraplegia, paralysis in all four limbs, provided an unprecedented level of control over a virtual quadcopter -- just by ...

Fine-Tuned Brain-Computer Interface Makes Prosthetic Limbs Feel More Real

Jan. 16, 2025 — Two new articles document progress in neuroprosthetic technology that lets people feel the shape and movement of objects moving over the 'skin' of a bionic ...

Fatal Neurodegenerative Disease in Kids Also Affects the Bowel

Jan. 15, 2025 — Researchers have described the neurodegeneration that occurs in the nervous system of the bowel in Batten disease, a rare and fatal genetic condition. In their latest study, a team showed that gene ...

Hearing Impairment May Be a Sign of Increased Risk of Parkinson's Disease

Jan. 14, 2025 — There may be a link between hearing impairment and an increased risk of developing Parkinson's according to new research. This is one of the first studies to examine whether sensory impairments, ...

Overcoming Spasticity to Help Paraplegics Walk Again

Jan. 8, 2025 — Thanks to new high-frequency electrical stimulation that blocks spasticity, two paralyzed patients suffering from muscle stiffness after spinal cord injury benefit from rehabilitation protocols for ...

Can the Heart Heal Itself? New Study Says It Can

Dec. 27, 2024 — Physician-scientists found that a subset of artificial heart patients can regenerate heart muscle, which may open the door to new ways to treat and perhaps someday cure heart ...

Brain Map Clarifies Neuronal Connectivity Behind Motor Function

Dec. 23, 2024 — Scientists traced connectivity between neurons to identify how the brain communicates with the spinal cord to control motor ...