STROKE patients are starting a trial of a new electronic device to recover movement and control of their hands.

Neuroscientists at Newcastle University have developed the device, the size of a mobile phone, which delivers a series of small electrical shocks followed by an audible click to strengthen brain and spinal connections.

The experts believe this could revolutionise treatment for patients, providing a wearable solution to the effects of a stroke.

Following successful work in primates and healthy human subjects, the Newcastle University team are now working with colleagues at the Institute of Neurosciences, Kolkata, India, to start the clinical trial.

The Northern Echo: TESTS: The device could with the recovery of stroke victims

The device could with the recovery of stroke victims

Involving 150 stroke patients, the aim of the study is to see whether it leads to improved hand and arm control.

Stuart Baker, professor of movement neuroscience at Newcastle University, who has led the work, said: “We were astonished to find that a small electric shock and the sound of a click had the potential to change the brain’s connections.

“However, our previous research in primates changed our thinking about how we could activate these pathways, leading to our study in humans.”

The team has created a device to strengthen connections in the reticulospinal tract, one of the signal pathways between the brain and spinal cord.

It is important for patients as when people have a stroke they often lose the major pathway found in all mammals connecting the brain to the spinal cord.

The team’s previous work in primates showed that after a stroke they can adapt and use a different, more primitive pathway, the reticulospinal tract, to recover.

Recovery tends to be imbalanced with more connections made to flexors, the muscles that close the hand, than extensors, those that open the hand.

This imbalance is also seen in stroke patients as typically, even after a period of recuperation, they find that they still have weakness of the extensor muscles preventing them opening their fist which leads to the distinctive curled hand.

Partial paralysis of the arms, typically on just one side, is common after stroke, and can affect someone’s ability to wash, dress or feed themselves.

Only about 15 per cent of stroke patients spontaneously recover the use of their hand and arm, with many people left facing the rest of their lives with a severe level of disability.

Professor Baker added: “We have developed a miniaturised device which delivers an audible click followed by a weak electric shock to the arm muscle to strengthen the brain’s connections.

“This means the stroke patients in the trial are wearing an earpiece and a pad on the arm, each linked by wires to the device so that the click and shock can be continually delivered to them.

“We think that if they wear this for four hours a day we will be able to see a permanent improvement in their extensor muscle connections which will help them gain control on their hand.”