Applying deep brain stimulation to a different region in the brain than has been used for other conditions improved the recovery of lower limb movements in two patients with severe spinal cord injuries, researchers reported.

Deep brain stimulation applied to the lateral hypothalamus "immediately augmented walking" in mice and rats and in the two humans, according to the report published in Nature Medicine.

This type of stimulation has been used to treat Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders, targeting other brain regions, but had not been tried for spinal injuries.

In both patients, while the spinal cord was damaged it still had the ability to send some signals to or from the brain.

“Once the electrode was in place and we performed the stimulation, the first patient immediately said, ‘I feel my legs.’ When we increased the stimulation, she said, ‘I feel the urge to walk!’

"This real-time feedback confirmed we had targeted the correct region, even if this region had never been associated with the control of the legs in humans,” study leader Jocelyne Bloch of Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne said in a statement.

“At this moment, I knew that we were witnessing an important discovery.”

The other patient, a 54-year-old who had been in a wheelchair since a 2006 ski accident, said that soon after the treatment, he was able to walk “a couple of steps” and “reach things in my cupboards in the kitchen.”

Both patients also had long-term improvements that persisted even when the stimulation was turned off, the researchers said.