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Published, Version of Record (VoR)CC BY V4.0, Open
Journal article
Cortex-dependent recovery of unassisted hindlimb locomotion after complete spinal cord injury in adult rats
eLife, v 6
29 Jun 2017
PMID: 28661400
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
After paralyzing spinal cord injury the adult nervous system has little ability to 'heal' spinal connections, and it is assumed to be unable to develop extra-spinal recovery strategies to bypass the lesion. We challenge this assumption, showing that completely spinalized adult rats can recover unassisted hindlimb weight support and locomotion without explicit spinal transmission of motor commands through the lesion. This is achieved with combinations of pharmacological and physical therapies that maximize cortical reorganization, inducing an expansion of trunk motor cortex and forepaw sensory cortex into the deafferented hindlimb cortex, associated with sprouting of corticospinal axons. Lesioning the reorganized cortex reverses the recovery. Adult rats can thus develop a novel cortical sensorimotor circuit that bypasses the lesion, probably through biomechanical coupling, to partly recover unassisted hindlimb locomotion after complete spinal cord injury.
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Details
- Title
- Cortex-dependent recovery of unassisted hindlimb locomotion after complete spinal cord injury in adult rats
- Creators
- Anitha Manohar - Drexel UniversityGuglielmo Foffani - CEU San Pablo UniversityPatrick D Ganzer - Drexel UniversityJohn R Bethea - Drexel UniversityKaren A Moxon - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- eLife, v 6
- Publisher
- eLife
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Biology; School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Health Systems
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000404841700001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85022346514
- Other Identifier
- 991019169707404721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Biology