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Teaching Adult Rats Spinalized as Neonates to Walk Using Trunk Robotic Rehabilitation: Elements of Success, Failure, and Dependence
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Teaching Adult Rats Spinalized as Neonates to Walk Using Trunk Robotic Rehabilitation: Elements of Success, Failure, and Dependence

Ubong I Udoekwere, Chintan S Oza and Simon F Giszter
The Journal of neuroscience, v 36(32), pp 8341-8355
10 Aug 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2435-14.2016
PMID: 27511008
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
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https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2435-14.2016View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Animals, Newborn Torso - innervation Hindlimb - physiology Prostheses and Implants Rats Resistance Training - methods Rats, Sprague-Dawley Recovery of Function Walking - physiology Weight-Bearing - physiology Exercise Test Animals Statistics, Nonparametric Female Robotics - methods Spinal Cord Injuries - rehabilitation Locomotion - physiology Disease Models, Animal
Robot therapy promotes functional recovery after spinal cord injury (SCI) in animal and clinical studies. Trunk actions are important in adult rats spinalized as neonates (NTX rats) that walk autonomously. Quadrupedal robot rehabilitation was tested using an implanted orthosis at the pelvis. Trunk cortical reorganization follows such rehabilitation. Here, we test the functional outcomes of such training. Robot impedance control at the pelvis allowed hindlimb, trunk, and forelimb mechanical interactions. Rats gradually increased weight support. Rats showed significant improvement in hindlimb stepping ability, quadrupedal weight support, and all measures examined. Function in NTX rats both before and after training showed bimodal distributions, with "poor" and "high weight support" groupings. A total of 35% of rats initially classified as "poor" were able to increase their weight-supported step measures to a level considered "high weight support" after robot training, thus moving between weight support groups. Recovered function in these rats persisted on treadmill with the robot both actuated and nonactuated, but returned to pretraining levels if they were completely disconnected from the robot. Locomotor recovery in robot rehabilitation of NTX rats thus likely included context dependence and/or incorporation of models of robot mechanics that became essential parts of their learned strategy. Such learned dependence is likely a hurdle to autonomy to be overcome for many robot locomotor therapies. Notwithstanding these limitations, trunk-based quadrupedal robot rehabilitation helped the rats to visit mechanical states they would never have achieved alone, to learn novel coordinations, and to achieve major improvements in locomotor function. Neonatal spinal transected rats without any weight support can be taught weight support as adults by using robot rehabilitation at trunk. No adult control rats with neonatal spinal transections spontaneously achieve similar changes. The robot rehabilitation system can be inactivated and the skills that were learned persist. Responding rats cannot be detached from the robot altogether, a dependence develops in the skill learned. From data and analysis here, the likelihood of such rats to respond to the robot therapy can also now be predicted. These results are all novel. Understanding trunk roles in voluntary and spinal reflex integration after spinal cord injury and in recovery of function are broadly significant for basic and clinical understanding of motor function.

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6 citations in Web of Science
7 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Neurosciences
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