By Cory Hatch People who suffer from brain or spinal cord trauma often have few options beyond physical therapy and hope; injuries to the central nervous system rarely heal and often worsen over time. But recently, researchers from Helsinki, Finland, found a tiny chunk of protein that not only keeps these cells alive but also encourages new cells to grow. The protein—called KDI tri-peptide (KDI)—could someday lead to new treatment options for people suffering from a wide range of neurological problems from spinal cord injury to Alzheimer's disease, says researcher Päivi Liesi. In earlier studies, Liesi and her colleagues found that rats with damaged spinal cords could walk again after three months when they injected KDI near the injury. The protein also shows promise for human cells, at least in the petri dish. How does KDI work? Liesi's most recent research, which appeared July 25 on the Journal of Neuroscience Research website, found that the KDI protein prevents cell death by blocking a substance called glutamate. Normally, glutamate helps cells communicate with one another for learning and memory. However, glutamate is toxic to injured neural cells, causing the cells to take in too much calcium and die. This cell death by glutamate occurs in many different types of nervous system injuries and diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease, and spinal cord injuries. Copyright © 2005 U.S.News & World Report

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity; Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System; Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 7708 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Could a chemical cousin of antifreeze someday help people with spinal cord injuries walk again? Researchers at Purdue University are studying this in dogs with paralyzed hind legs. They injected 19 injured dogs with a drug called polyethylene glycol (PEG)—a nontoxic liquid polymer related to antifreeze—on top of providing them with the standard drugs, surgery and rehab, and showed that PEG targets damaged nerve cells, protecting some of the injured cells from progressive damage and death. "The dogs that come in that receive conventional management, that is, just surgery and rehabilitation, about 15 to 20 percent of those dogs will have some quality of life just through spontaneous repair," says Richard Borgens, director of Purdue University Center for Paralysis Research, who reported his findings in the Journal of Neurotrauma. "But most of them, about 80 percent, will remain paraplegic for the rest of their lives. What this [PEG] compound does when we inject it is it reverses those odds, it really goes from about 20-80 to 80-20; about 80 percent are leading very normal lives, good quality of life, and only about 20 percent have any kind of real problem at the end of the study time, which was, we followed them out to about a year." In the study, 13 of the 19 dogs (about 68 percent) injected with PEG regained use of their hind legs and were able to walk within eight weeks. The dogs were injected twice—when they were brought into the lab (within three days of their injuries), and then after standard surgery and steroids to reduce inflammation. In a group of 24 dogs that only received the standard treatment, only about 25 percent regained a similar level of mobility and 62 percent remained paraplegic. © ScienCentral, 2000- 2005.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 6805 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Using a precisely targeted laser, researchers have snipped apart a single neuron in the roundworm C. elegans — an achievement that opens a new avenue for studying nerve regeneration in this genetically manipulable animal. Indeed, their initial studies have demonstrated that the severed nerves of worms are capable of regenerating and regaining full function. According to the researchers, studying nerve regeneration in the worm could provide answers to questions that are not accessible currently by doing experiments in more complex animals, including mice and zebrafish. “Until now there has been little study of nerve regeneration using genetic methodology, because most studies have been done on higher vertebrate organisms.” Yishi Jin A research team that included Yishi Jin, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), Andrew Chisholm, also of UCSC, and Adela Ben-Yakar, who was at Stanford University and is now at the University of Texas at Austin, reported its achievement in the December 16, 2004, issue of the journal Nature. Other co-authors are from Stanford University and UCSC. © 2004 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 6591 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Christopher Reeve, best known for his role as Superman, remained in the limelight in recent years as an advocate of increased funding and research for spinal cord injuries and other central nervous system disorders. Left paralyzed from the neck down by a fall from his horse in 1995, Reeve focused his efforts through the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation. He was one of an estimated 250,000 people in the U.S. living with spinal cord injuries. Martin Schwab, a neuroscientist at The Brain Research Institute at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and an international team of researchers have spent much of the last twenty years studying why the nerve fibers of the spinal cord and the brain don't re-grow or regenerate themselves after injury in the same way as other tissues of the body. "If you destroy a large part of the muscle tissue in a muscle, or of your liver, this tissue can re-generate," Schwab explains. "This is what is not occurring in the central nervous system." During early childhood development, the nervous system, which consists of around 10 billion nerve cells, each one having between a thousand and ten thousand connections with other nerve cells, develops and forms an incredibly complex network. Having become stabilized, the adult central nervous system—the brain and the spinal cord—are relatively hard-wired, allowing only small changes during learning or adaptation. So when part of this system is damaged by injury or disease such as stroke, the loss of function associated with the damage is permanent. "Once you are paraplegic due to an accident which has injured your spinal cord, you remain in a wheelchair all your life," Schwab says. © ScienCentral, 2000- 2004.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 6337 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Some of the 250,000 Americans who have been paralyzed by spinal cord injuries are pressing medical researchers for a cure. The most prominent is actor and director Christopher Reeve, who was paralyzed after a fall from his horse in 1995. At a symposium on spinal cord research at Rockefeller University, held on November 24, 2003, Reeve commented on "a certain frustration" that he and other paralyzed patients feel over the current pace of American research, which has been hampered by political debate over the use of stem cells. "I think that we need to inject more urgency into the whole process here," Reeve observed. Another speaker at the Rockefeller symposium was Michael Di Scipio, 34, who was paralyzed after a diving accident in July 1999, when he was 29. A single father, he says his two young children have been injured, too—by what he can't do: "Not being able to run around and play with them, hold them, tickle them, tuck them in, give them a kiss good night. Things we're supposed to do as parents." One reason that prospects for recovery are dim at present for patients with spinal cord injury is that unlike other cells, nerve cells, or neurons in the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord) are unique in that they cannot replicate themselves in their mature state. So repairing spinal cords means finding a way to get nerve cells to grow back across the gap in a spinal cord that has been severed. © ScienCentral, 2000-2004.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 5636 - Posted: 06.24.2010

— Researchers have devised a genetic technique to distinguish the neurons in the spinal cord that control the sequential stepping of the left and right limbs. Their findings have literally taken them a step closer to understanding the neural circuitry that coordinates walking movements - which has been one of the main obstacles in developing new treatments for paralysis. According to the researchers, using genetic techniques to identify specific spinal neural networks could greatly enhance our knowledge of the intricate neural circuitry involved in spinal motor control. Moreover, a better understanding of this area is absolutely crucial in developing strategies to restore motor function caused by paralysis due to spinal injury or disease. The approach that the researchers used to identify these neurons will likely find broader application and be useful in defining the “local” circuitry that governs other rhythmic processes such as breathing, as well as reflex behaviors that do not involve the brain. ©2004 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity; Chapter 19: Language and Lateralization
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System; Chapter 15: Language and Lateralization
Link ID: 5502 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By CLAUDIA DREIFUS The first thought that Dr. Marie T. Filbin wants to convey is that it is possible to teach at a municipal college and have a great research career. "People are always putting down the City University because it is not Harvard or Rockefeller," said Dr. Filbin, 48, a professor of biological sciences at Hunter College of the City University of New York. "But Hunter is a great place for a researcher. My students are wonderful." A scientist who praises an employer is rare enough. But then Marie Filbin is an unusual scientist. Her specialty is practical: she studies why injured nerve cells do not regenerate themselves — a factor crucial to understanding the mysteries of paralysis. When not at her bench, she delivers lectures — really progress reports on her research — at nursing homes. And when she speaks to paralysis patients, she says, "They put me on the spot." Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity; Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System; Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 5139 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A new study strongly suggests that some cells from bone marrow can enter the human brain and generate new neurons and other types of brain cells. If researchers can find a way to control these cells and direct them to damaged areas of the brain, this finding may lead to new treatments for stroke, Parkinson's disease, and other neurological disorders. "This study shows that some kind of cell in bone marrow, most likely a stem cell, has the capacity to enter the brain and form neurons," says Èva Mezey, M.D., Ph.D., from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), who led the study. Earlier work by Dr. Mezey and others has shown that bone marrow cells can enter the mouse brain and produce new neurons. However, the new study is the first to show that this phenomenon can occur in the human brain. The study was supported in part by the NINDS and appears in the January 20, 2003, online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1 . The NINDS is a component of the National Institutes of Health, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In the study, Dr. Mezey and colleagues examined brain tissue taken at autopsy from four female patients — two adults and two children — who had received bone marrow transplants from male donors. The bone marrow transplants had been performed to treat leukemia and other non-neurological diseases, and the patients survived from 1 to 9 months after their transplants.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 3326 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By ANDREW POLLACK IRVINE, Calif. — In a closetlike room at the "Leg Lab" here, salamanders stare blankly out of clear plastic drinking cups. The lab is so named because many of the animals have had, or will have, a leg cut off. But the salamanders recover, with perfect new limbs growing back in weeks. Salamanders are the superstars of regeneration. They can grow back not only limbs but also tails, parts of their hearts and the retinas and lenses in their eyes. Humans cannot do any of that. So scientists here hope that the salamander's tricks may one day be applied to people. "I really do believe it's just a matter of time before you're going to regenerate an arm or at least a finger," said Dr. David M. Gardiner, a biologist who runs the laboratory at the University of California at Irvine with Dr. Susan V. Bryant, the dean of biological sciences and his wife. "I'd like to see that in my lifetime." Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 19: Language and Lateralization
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 15: Language and Lateralization
Link ID: 2698 - Posted: 06.24.2010

New Haven, Conn. — Yale researchers have developed a synthetic peptide that promotes new nerve fiber growth in the damaged spinal cords of laboratory rats and allows them to walk better, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Nature. The finding could lead to the reversal of functional deficits resulting from brain and spinal cord injuries and caused by trauma and stroke, or brought about by degenerative diseases, such as multiple sclerosis. The lead author of the study, Stephen Strittmatter, M.D., associate professor of neurology and neurobiology at Yale School of Medicine, said the study confirms which molecules block axon regeneration in the spinal cord and shows that a peptide can promote new growth. Axons are the telephone lines of the nervous system and carry a nerve impulse to a target cell. Copyright © 1995-2002 ScienceDaily Magazine

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 2177 - Posted: 06.24.2010

ORLANDO, Fla., — Researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have identified a set of compounds that appear to overcome an important barrier to regenerating damaged nerves. Their findings could lead to new treatments for spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis and other neurological conditions. Targeting a newly discovered mechanism that inhibits the growth of damaged nerves, the researchers found that these compounds caused dissected rat nerves to regenerate under controlled laboratory conditions. Findings were described today at the 223rd national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society. The results add to a growing body of evidence that repairing spinal cord injury — once thought impossible — may one day occur, says Ronald L. Schnaar, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the university, located in Baltimore, Md., and lead investigator in the study.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 3: Neurophysiology: The Generation, Transmission, and Integration of Neural Signals
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 2: Neurophysiology: The Generation, Transmission, and Integration of Neural Signals
Link ID: 1830 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Susan Gaidos It could have been a scene from a sequel to Jurassic Park: Peering down at the tiny worms wriggling under the lens of her microscope, biologist Alexandra Bely witnessed a performance that hadn’t been played in nature in millions of years. The beastie was sprouting a second head. Actually, two-headed worms are common in Bely’s lab at the University of Maryland in College Park. But this specimen belongs to a species that had long ago lost the unusual regenerative ability. That species, Paranais litoralis, is part of an ancient family of worms called naidids that settle in the soft sediments alongside streams and ponds. Generally, if a sudden rush of water or a hungry predator causes a naidid to lose its head, it will simply grow another one. But some species that Bely and colleagues have studied, including Pa. litoralis, seem to have lost this power. So it surprised Bely to see that, with the right timing, the creature could regain its head-popping potential. “That’s very exciting, because it indicates that the ability to regenerate is still there, in a dormant state,” Bely says, “though it probably hasn’t been expressed or seen in millions of years.” Bely’s finding and other recent results have encouraged researchers who are trying to figure out why some animals can reconstruct their body parts while others can’t. Most species have the ability to regenerate some body parts, yet this talent is highly variable. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2010

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 19: Language and Lateralization; Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 15: Language and Lateralization; Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 13720 - Posted: 06.24.2010

For the first time, researchers have enticed transplants of embryonic stem cell-derived motor neurons in the spinal cord to connect with muscles and partially restore function in paralyzed animals. The study suggests that similar techniques may be useful for treating such disorders as spinal cord injury, transverse myelitis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and spinal muscular atrophy. The study was funded in part by the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). The researchers, led by Douglas Kerr, M.D., Ph.D., of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, used a combination of transplanted motor neurons, chemicals capable of overcoming signals that inhibit axon growth, and a nerve growth factor to attract axons to muscles. The report is published in the July 2006 issue of Annals of Neurology.* "This work is a remarkable advance that can help us understand how stem cells might be used to treat injuries and disease and begin to fulfill their great promise. The successful demonstration of functional restoration is proof of the principle and an important step forward. We must remember, however, that we still have a great distance to go," says Elias A. Zerhouni, Director of the National Institutes of Health.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 19: Language and Lateralization; Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 15: Language and Lateralization; Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 9043 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Paralysed dogs given an unusual treatment for spinal cord injury have shown some success in being able to walk again, a new study reveals. Dogs rendered paraplegic by severe spinal cord injuries regained significant neurological function after treatment with a polymer called polyethylene glycol, or PEG, say researchers at Purdue University in Indiana, US. Dogs admitted to two veterinary hospitals with paraplegia - caused by naturally occurring mishaps leading to “explosive” ruptures of spinal discs - were initially treated with intravenous injections of PEG. This was followed by standard treatments, such as surgery to relieve pressure on the spinal cord and remove stray bone fragments, and steroids to reduce inflammation. The team, led by Richard Borgens of Purdue’s Center for Paralysis Research, reports that the PEG-treated animals showed marked improvement compared to “historical controls” - paraplegic dogs whose progress had been documented at the hospitals following standard treatments in the 1990s. Within 48 hours, the PEG-treated dogs scored far better than the historical controls on neurological and behavioural tests designed to measure early functional recovery. And by six weeks after treatment 68% of the PEG-treated dogs were able to walk, compared with only 24% of the historical controls. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 6526 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The treatment of neuropsychological deficits that follow stroke or head injury comes under scrutiny at an international conference-aimed of determining which treatments work, how well they work and for whom. The 600 delegates at the Effectiveness of Rehabilitation for Cognitive Deficits conference, organised by Cardiff University’s School of Psychology are drawn from all sectors of health care management and include medical doctors, clinical psychologists, research neuropsychologists, therapists, insurers, lawyers, patients and their families. “The volume of interest that the conference has generated reflects the originality and significance of the theme,” said conference organiser, Professor Peter Halligan. “As far as we are aware, there has never been a formal international meeting dedicated to considering the efficacy of existing treatments and employing an evidence based approach for cognitive disorders in patients following brain damage”. Rehabilitation for brain injury is expensive and time consuming.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 2: Functional Neuroanatomy: The Cells and Structure of the Nervous System; Chapter 19: Language and Lateralization
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 1: Cells and Structures: The Anatomy of the Nervous System; Chapter 15: Language and Lateralization
Link ID: 2664 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Washington, DC -- Neuroscientists had long believed that the only way to repair a spinal cord injury was to grow new neural connections, but researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center have found that, especially in young rats, powerful cells near the injury site also work overtime to restrict nerve damage and restore movement and sensation. The same process does not work as efficiently in adult rats and thus recovery time is much longer, the researchers also discovered. But they say that now that they know such a mechanism exists, it may be possible one day to “switch” these cells on therapeutically ? and possibly help humans function better following serious spinal cord injuries. “No one knew cells in the spinal cord acted to protect nerves in this way, so it gives us some hope that in the future we could stimulate this process in the clinic to enhance recovery and ensure the best outcome possible for patients,” said the senior author, Jean R. Wrathall, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Neuroscience. “This is an animal study, however, and there is much work to do to understand more about this process and how it might be altered,” Wrathall said. The study, whose first author is graduate student Philberta Y. Leung, is published in the November 2006 issue of the journal Experimental Neurology.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 9602 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Transplantation of human brain cells corrected involuntary muscle spasms in rats with ischemic spinal cord injury, according to research published online October 12 and in print October 19, 2004 in the European Journal of Neurosciences by investigators at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine. Ischemic spinal cord injury, caused by reduced blood flow to the spinal cord, occurs in 20 to 40 percent of the several hundred patients each year in the U.S. who undergo surgery to repair an aneurysm, or sac-like widening of the aorta, the main artery that leaves the heart. A subpopulation of patients with ischemic spinal cord injury develop a prominent muscle spasticity, or jerkiness of the legs and lower body, due to the irreversible loss of specialized spinal cord cells that control local motor function. During a 12-week period in which the animals were followed, the UCSD team found that rats receiving the brain, or neuronal cell transplants displayed a progressive recovery of motor function and a decrease in spasticity in the lower extremities over a period of several weeks following the injections. Fifty percent of the animals experienced a significant improvement in motor function. In contrast, the “control” rats that did not receive transplants exhibited no improvement in motor function or spasticity. A post-mortem study of the animals showed a robust growth of neurons and an increase in neurotransmitters in the spinal cords of rats that received the transplanted neuronal cells.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 6274 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by MacGregor Campbell "THE leg wasn't bouncing all over the table, but there were substantial twitches," says Matthew Schiefer, a neural engineer at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Schiefer is describing an experiment in which pulses of electricity are used to control the muscles of an unconscious patient, as if they were a marionette. It represents the beginnings of a new generation of devices that he hopes will allow people with paralysed legs to regain control of their muscles and so be able to stand, or even walk again. His is one of a raft of gadgets being developed that plug into the network of nerves that normally relay commands from the spinal cord to the muscles, but fall silent when a spinal injury breaks the chain. New ways to connect wires to nerves (see diagram) allow artificial messages to be injected to selectively control muscles just as if the signal had originated in the brain. Limbs that might otherwise never again be controlled by their owners can be brought back to life. The potential of this approach was demonstrated in 2006 when a different Case Western team enabled someone who was paralysed from the waist down to watch their usually motionless knees straighten at the push of a button. With a little support they even stood for 2 minutes while signals injected into nerves in their thighs kept their knees straight. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 13932 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by James Mitchell Crow YOU were born with all the brain cells you'll ever have, so the saying goes. So much for sayings. In the 1990s, decades of dogma were overturned by the discovery that mammals, including people, make new neurons throughout their lives. In humans, such "neurogenesis" has been seen in two places: neurons formed in the olfactory bulb seem to be involved in learning new smells, while those born in the hippocampus are involved in learning and memory. The discovery that new neurons can integrate into the adult brain raises intriguing possibilities. Could the process be harnessed to treat diseases of the brain, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's? The trick will be in replacing diseased cells with just the right kind of neuron, says Jeff Macklis, who studies neurogenesis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. By some estimates, the nervous system is made up of 10,000 different kinds of neuron. This complexity means you can't just hijack any old cell produced by natural neurogenesis. However, there may be other ways of growing new neurons to order. Olle Lindvall at Lund University in Sweden has shown what might be possible. He transplanted dopamine-producing neurons taken from aborted fetuses into the brains of people with Parkinson's, and showed the new neurons can improve brain function, although the treatment didn't work for everyone. Lindvall is now looking for ways to make these specialised neurons from embryonic stem cells or stem cells made by reprogramming adult skin cells. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 19: Language and Lateralization; Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 15: Language and Lateralization; Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 13923 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Ian Sample, science correspondent People who are left wheelchair-bound by spinal cord injuries could regain some of their mobility through a rehabilitation programme being developed by scientists. Guardian neuroscience stories have found that a combination of drugs, muscle stimulation and treadmill exercises helps paralysed rats to recover the ability to walk normally. The animal tests pave the way for clinical trials in humans, which scientists hope to begin in the US and Switzerland within five years. The treatment, developed by neurologists at the University of Zurich and the University of California in Los Angeles, taps into neural circuits in the spinal cord that control the muscles used for walking. In able-bodied people, these "walking circuits" spring into action when they receive a signal from the brain, but if the spinal cord is damaged, the message from the brain never arrives. When contact with the brain is lost, the circuits shut down. "We've known for more than a century that there are networks of neurons in the spinal cord that generate the rhythmic activity needed for walking," said Grégoire Courtine at the Experimental Neurorehabilitation laboratory in Zurich. "Our study suggests that the brain mostly sends a go or no-go signal." A team led by Courtine used drugs known as serotonin agonists to awaken the walking circuits in paralysed rats whose spines had been severed. The researchers then used tiny electrodes to stimulate the animals' spinal circuitry, according to a report in the journal Nature Neuroscience. © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 13284 - Posted: 06.24.2010