Disability News

April 15, 2025

Top Headlines

Candidate Deafness Genes Revealed in New Study

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

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 with developing new treatments for chronic pain. It ...

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 cells' developmental journey and discover how 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 interacting genes called the Hippo pathway, which serve ...

Latest Headlines

updated 1:53pm EDT

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 ...

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 must ...

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 forearm ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Antibody That Neutralizes Inhibitory Factors Involved in Nerve Regeneration Leads to Enhanced Motor Function After Acute Spinal Cord Injury

Dec. 19, 2024 — Antibodies can improve the rehabilitation of people with acute spinal cord injury. Researchers have investigated this with promising results. For the first time, it was possible to identify patient ...

New Virtual Reality-Tested System Shows Promise in Aiding Navigation of People With Blindness or Low Vision

Dec. 17, 2024 — A new study offers hope for people who are blind or have low vision (pBLV) through an innovative navigation system that was tested using virtual reality. The system, which combines vibrational and ...

Study Sheds Light on What Causes Long-Term Disability After a Stroke and Offers New Path Toward Possible Treatment

Dec. 17, 2024 — Researchers have revealed how an overlooked type of indirect brain damage contributes to ongoing disability after a stroke. The paper shows how the thalamus -- a sort of central networking hub that ...

Neural Stem Cell Transplantation Shows Promise for Treating Chronic Spinal Cord Injury

Dec. 17, 2024 — Using neural stem cells could help treat spinal injuries once thought to be untreatable -- a new phase 1 trial has determined this approach is ...

Study Breaks the Silence on How Fish and Lizards Regenerate Hearing

Dec. 9, 2024 — A new study has identified key gene regulators that enable some deafened animals -- including fish and lizards -- to naturally regenerate their hearing. The findings could guide future efforts to ...