Disability News

June 3, 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. ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:44pm EDT

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

New 'Hidden in Plain Sight' Facial and Eye Biomarkers for Tinnitus Severity Could Unlock Path to Testing Treatments

Apr. 30, 2025 — Researchers have identified biomarkers for tinnitus severity in subtle facial movements and pupil dilation that can be captured on video recordings. ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Candidate Deafness Genes Revealed in New Study

Apr. 11, 2025 — New candidate genes which could be responsible for deafness have been ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 interacting genes called the Hippo pathway, which serve ...

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 ...

Hearing Triggered by Molecular 'Spring'

Mar. 5, 2025 — Hearing begins with the stretching of elastic molecular 'springs' that open ion channels in the sensory hair cells of the ear. For decades, researchers have known that these gating springs ...

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 ...

Novel Stem Cell Therapy Repairs 'Irreversible' Corneal Damage in Clinical Trial

Mar. 4, 2025 — Results from a phase 1/2 clinical trial of a novel stem cell treatment for cornea injuries found 14 patients treated and tracked for 18 months had a more than 90% success rate at restoring the ...

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 ...