Paralyzed Rodents Learn to Walk Again

This is Rattrap, a transformer who has nothing to do with this article. He's here because I know if I don't give you guys at least one picture you lose your shit.

Scientists have discovered that a combination of drugs, low level electrical currents, and some good old fashioned exercise have somewhat restored the ability to walk in paralyzed rats. Apparantly for quite some time scientists have been working finding a solution for those who have nerve severing injuries in their spine that lead to paralysis. And while what they've discovered here isn't perfect, it's the next best thing.

According to the article (found here) the practice stimulates nerves that can generate rhythmic activity (walking) without the brain's input. The work around has always been however that while this seems to get muscles twitching in the legs, there was never clear and defined walking going on. This latest experiment seems to have figured that out, at least in rats. Although it's still fairly early in testing, and the rodents could not move without the combination of drugs / electrical currents, it's still a hell of a break through int his kind of thing. On top of all this scientists found that with regular exercise, the rats had greater range of movement and were able to walk backwards, sideways, and even eventually run.

How's that for Bonus Time? One day you can't walk, the next you've got a battery pack on your ass, and you're shooting serotonin into your spine to get you walking again. While this hasn't been tested (at least to our knowledge) on humans yet, who says such a thing is out of the realm of possibilities. After all, it's Bonus Time!