Word: fingers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...just that Christopher Reeve can move his left index finger--which he can, by the way--it's that he can move it any way he jolly well pleases. "I can do it fast, I can do it slow, I can do it up and down or side to side," Reeve says. "The response is instantaneous and voluntary...
Reeve was talking to Dana in a sunny reading room and was trying to make a point emphatically. "Suddenly," says Reeve, "my index finger rose and fell. Dana asked if I was doing it on purpose. I said no, and she said, 'Well...
Reeve did try, and the finger moved as commanded. Two months later, he was in New Orleans addressing a symposium of neuroscientists when he met with Dr. John McDonald, a professor at the Washington University School of Medicine who was developing a therapy program for paralysis patients that he called activity-based recovery. While the paralysis community--McDonald included--believes that the road to a cure runs at least partly through the lab (see box), McDonald is convinced that a vigorous program of exercise and electrical muscle stimulation may also help awaken the nervous system. Reeve showed McDonald his finger...
Over the next month, he put Reeve through a battery of tests. Magnetic-resonance imaging showed that the signal commanding the finger originated in the correct region of the brain, meaning that at least one clean circuit was intact. With a little coaxing, Reeve brought more circuits online, learning to move other hand joints, wiggle his toes and push back when resistance was applied to his feet. Though he had noticed some sensation returning, he hadn't realized how much. A standard test with a cotton ball and a safety pin revealed that he was sensitive to a pinprick over...
...Still, the dominant mood in 11'09"01 is finger-pointing. The contribution by India's Mira Nair documents the agony of a Muslim boy in Brooklyn accused of conspiring with terrorists when he had actually gone to ground zero in a rescue effort. Several of the pieces?set in Chile (Ken Loach), Israel (Amos Gitai), Bosnia (Danis Tanovic)?make a single hectoring, helpful point: our countries have suffered atrocities for years, decades, centuries; welcome to the club, America. Egypt's Youssef Chahine argues that Islamic militants have the right to kill civilians in the U.S. and Israel because these...