“Why do people get paralyzed?” Kanishka and Myra from Delhi Public School, Secunderabad, ask. Utsuka and Jigyasa were chatting with their curious friends about how humans have this ability to physically move from one place to another. That’s when one of them asked why some people lose this wonderful ability to move and become paralysed.

In the third episode of season 03 of IndiaAsksWhy, we look at what causes paralysis. We learn that paralysis happens because of numerous kinds of problems in muscular and neural systems, and the “neuromuscular” junction – the place where the neurons meet muscles. The curious group also spoke to a brain scientist, Prof. Sheeba Vasu, from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), to understand how scientists study paralysis – or movements in general – in the lab using fruitflies!

We’re sure this conversation between the curious group would have made you curious, too. You can send your follow-up questions on our website, and we’ll pick them up :)

Please write to indiaaskswhy@gmail.com if you'd like your school to be involved with IndiaAsksWhy.

Illustration

References

• https://www.britannica.com/science/paralysis

• https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/paralysis/

• https://www.christopherreeve.org/living-with-paralysis/health/causes-of-paralysis

• https://kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2022.812576

Credits

• Hosts: Shweata N. Hegde and Ruchi Manglunia
• Guest scientist: Prof. Sheeba Vasu
• Students: Myra and Kanishka from Delhi Public School, Secunderabad
• Audio Editor: Indulekha MS
• Transcriber: Khushi Goel
• Poster credits: Mrunal Kulkarni