Houston, GEMINI has landed: Spinal cord fusion achieved

One of the keys to a successful spinal cord fusion is a very sharp cut that minimizes damage of the cord, both at the white matter and the gray matter level. This allows the two interfaces of a severed cord to regrow neurites out of the gray matter core, the vital component of the sensorimotor machinery that makes us move and feel (the so‐called cortico‐trunco‐reticulo‐proprio‐spinal pathway, CTRPS) – unlike the previous misbegotten dogma that the white matter (including the pyramidal corticospinal fibers) with its 20 million fibers was solely or to a large extent in charge of these functions (for in‐depth anatomical discussion, see references 2–3 and 6). Work done since Cajal’s time, but then forgotten or ignored, made it clear that a sharp cut was not irreversibly associated with permanent paralysis; in fact, animals reacquired sensorimotor function.[2‐4]