Plenary #2 - WFL Lecture
Tracks
Plenary
| Thursday, October 8, 2026 |
| 4:00 PM - 4:50 PM |
| Banquet Hall (Plenary) |
Details
Rewiring spared neural circuits after injury is a long-standing goal of neurorehabilitation. After extensive testing in animals, we hypothesized that combining intensive, progressive, task-focused training with real-time closed-loop vagus nerve stimulation (CLV) to enhance synaptic plasticity could increase strength, expand range of motion and improve hand function in people with chronic, incomplete cervical spinal cord injury. We completed the prospective, double-blinded, sham-controlled, randomized study in 19 people by combining gamified physical therapy using force and motion sensors to deliver sham or active CLV (Nature, 2025). Beneficial effects on arm and hand strength and improved ability to perform activities of daily living were observed after therapy composed of a miniaturized implant to selectively activate the vagus nerve on successful movements. Follow-on studies suggest that CLV produces meaningful, long-lasting, and accumulating gains (AJPMR, 2026). Further, we have observed that CLV can also improve leg strength and walking speed. After FDA approval of CLV to treat stroke in 2021, we are now preparing to conduct a prospective, double-blinded, sham-controlled, randomized, multi-site pivotal study in people with motor incomplete cervical spinal cord injury. Successful completion of this study could lead to FDA approval in three years.
Presenter (only the submitting author is listed below; co-presenters, where applicable, will be listed in the conference app)
Prof Michael Kilgard
Director, Texas Biomedical Device Center
University of Texas at Dallas
Closed-Loop Vagus Nerve Stimulation to Improve Hand and Leg Function in People with Chronic Motor Incomplete Cervical Spinal Cord Injury
Biography
Dr. Michael Kilgard is one of the leading researchers in the area of directing neural plasticity for the treatment of serious neurological and psychiatric disorders. He invented precisely timed vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and has showed the therapy can enhance plasticity and rehabilitation in multiple animal models and in patients with stroke, tinnitus, spinal cord injury, and PTSD. In 2021, VNS was FDA approved as the first neurotechnology proven to improve function after stroke. Dr. Kilgard has more than 30 patents and has published over 150 papers in top journals, including Nature, Science, Nature Neuroscience, Stroke, and Neuron. He is the recipient of the University of Texas Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award. Dr. Kilgard is the Margaret Fonde Jonsson Professor of Neuroscience and the director of the Texas Biomedical Device Center (txbdc.com). He has received more than $30 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, and private foundations.
Dr. Kilgard trained in biochemistry and genetics at the University of California at Berkeley and in neuroscience at the University of California at San Francisco.
