European researchers said they have found a way to help paralysed rats learn to walk again through a combination of spinal cord stimulation and robotic-aided therapy.

The rats also showed massive four-fold increase in the connections between the brain and spinal cord after training, according to the research by scientists in Switzerland, published in the US journal Science.

The key to the success of the therapy was how it engaged the rats to participate in their own rehabilitation, said lead author Gregoire Courtine, chair of the International Paraplegic Foundation in Spinal Cord Repair at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne.

“In the beginning... the animal is struggling and it is really difficult,” he said.

“Then the first time it happens, the animal is surprised. It looks at you like, ‘Wow. I walked!’”

The therapy combines an electrical-chemical stimulation of the spinal cord, mimicking the signals the brain would normally send to initiate movement in the limbs, and a rehabilitation device that helps the rats stand upright.