Mind Reads; April/May 2007; Scientific American Mind; by Kurt Kleiner, Nicole Branan, Ken Silber; 2 Page(s)

Almost from the time electricity was discovered, scientists suspected it was involved in human and animal motion. They used electricity to make frogs' legs jump and, less successfully, to try to reanimate the dead.

Today modern science can use a judicious jolt of electricity to restart a stopped heart under the right circumstances. Much more difficult has been the attempt to use implanted electrodes to restore function to body parts affected by nerve damage.