full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Grégoire Courtine: The paralyzed rat that walked

Unscramble the Blue Letters

And this was the idea: I'm going to use a siistlmpic metaphor to explain to you this complicated concept. Imagine that the locomotor system is a car. The engine is the spinal cord. The tssnmraioisn is interrupted. The engine is tnerud off. How could we re-engage the engine? First, we have to provide the fuel; second, press the aatlrececor pedal; third, steer the car. It turned out that there are known neural pathways coming from the brain that play this very function during lcomooiton. My idea: rcpalee this missing input to provide the spinal cord with the kind of intervention that the brain would deliver naturally in order to walk.

Open Cloze

And this was the idea: I'm going to use a __________ metaphor to explain to you this complicated concept. Imagine that the locomotor system is a car. The engine is the spinal cord. The ____________ is interrupted. The engine is ______ off. How could we re-engage the engine? First, we have to provide the fuel; second, press the ___________ pedal; third, steer the car. It turned out that there are known neural pathways coming from the brain that play this very function during __________. My idea: _______ this missing input to provide the spinal cord with the kind of intervention that the brain would deliver naturally in order to walk.

Solution

  1. locomotion
  2. turned
  3. accelerator
  4. replace
  5. simplistic
  6. transmission

Original Text

And this was the idea: I'm going to use a simplistic metaphor to explain to you this complicated concept. Imagine that the locomotor system is a car. The engine is the spinal cord. The transmission is interrupted. The engine is turned off. How could we re-engage the engine? First, we have to provide the fuel; second, press the accelerator pedal; third, steer the car. It turned out that there are known neural pathways coming from the brain that play this very function during locomotion. My idea: Replace this missing input to provide the spinal cord with the kind of intervention that the brain would deliver naturally in order to walk.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
spinal cord 17
cord injury 3
electrochemical neuroprosthesis 3
injured people 2
permanent paralysis 2
highly functional 2
functional state 2
paralyzed rat 2
locomotor networks 2
fibers coming 2
central nervous 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
spinal cord injury 3
highly functional state 2

Important Words

  1. accelerator
  2. brain
  3. car
  4. coming
  5. complicated
  6. concept
  7. cord
  8. deliver
  9. engine
  10. explain
  11. function
  12. imagine
  13. input
  14. interrupted
  15. intervention
  16. kind
  17. locomotion
  18. locomotor
  19. metaphor
  20. missing
  21. naturally
  22. neural
  23. order
  24. pathways
  25. play
  26. press
  27. provide
  28. replace
  29. simplistic
  30. spinal
  31. steer
  32. system
  33. transmission
  34. turned
  35. walk