Browse the latest research summaries in the field of neuroplasticity for spinal cord injury patients and caregivers.
Showing 71-80 of 159 results
The Journal of Neuroscience, 2007 • October 31, 2007
This symposium summarizes scientific bases for current clinical trials aimed at improving functions after SCI. After primary and secondary damage, endogenous processes may foster or hinder axonal reco...
KEY FINDING: Function-blocking antibodies recognizing Nogo-A induce enhanced regenerative sprouting from injured fibers, long-distance regeneration of subpopulations of fibers, and enhanced compensatory fiber growth from non-injured fibers and tracts.
J Rehabil Res Dev, 2008 • February 1, 2008
The adult mammalian CNS is capable of considerable spontaneous structural and functional plasticity, both in health and disease. Significant evidence from both human and animal studies indicates that ...
KEY FINDING: Reorganization of the CNS, including synaptic plasticity, axonal sprouting, and cellular proliferation, has long been known to spontaneously occur following spinal cord lesions.
Exp Neurol, 2010 • March 1, 2010
This study assessed the chronic effects of low thoracic hemisection on the cough reflex in cats. The major finding is that expiratory motor drive to abdominal muscles is not significantly impaired dur...
KEY FINDING: Expiratory motor drive to abdominal muscles is not significantly impaired during cough in cats that are chronically hemisected in the lower thoracic spinal cord.
Brain Res Bull, 2011 • March 10, 2011
This review discusses the potential of combining exercise and chondroitinase ABC (ChABC) to enhance recovery after spinal cord injury (SCI). While exercise alone has limited efficacy, ChABC can promot...
KEY FINDING: Neither exercise alone, ChABC alone, nor the combination of both treatments resulted in a significant improvement in locomotor function compared with mice that had no wheels and intraparenchymal vehicle injections.
JOURNAL OF NEUROTRAUMA, 2010 • November 1, 2010
The study examined the effects of Nogo Receptor (NgR) deletion and multimodal exercise training on recovery from incomplete cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) in mice. Results showed that NgR deletion ...
KEY FINDING: Exercise training improved performance on tasks specifically related to the training regimen, indicating a task-specific benefit.
Spinal Cord Series and Cases, 2017 • June 15, 2017
This pilot case series investigated the effects of combined anodal tDCS with robotic-assisted arm training (RAT) on individuals with chronic, incomplete cervical SCI. The study found modest improvemen...
KEY FINDING: Patients who received active tDCS treatment showed greater improvement in hand function and hand usage compared to those who received sham treatment.
American Journal of Pathology, 2018 • January 1, 2018
This review surveys the mechanisms leading to the formation of dystrophic growth cone at the injured axonal tip, the subsequent axonal dieback, and the molecular determinants of axon growth, plasticit...
KEY FINDING: Injured axons in the CNS often fail to regenerate and form dystrophic end bulbs, which persist at the lesion border.
Scientific Reports, 2017 • October 5, 2017
This case study reports on a chronic motor complete SCI individual who regained volitional motor control and independent standing without spinal cord epidural stimulation (scES) after long-term activi...
KEY FINDING: After activity-based training with scES, the participant showed progressive recovery of volitional leg movements and standing without scES.
Brain Res, 2012 • February 15, 2012
The study investigated gene expression changes in motor and sensory neurons following spinal cord injury (SCI) and exercise, focusing on neurotrophic factors, heat shock proteins (HSPs), and caspases....
KEY FINDING: Exercise increased the expression of genes related to nerve growth and plasticity, specifically BDNF and GDNF, in motoneurons and intermediate gray matter.
Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 2018 • January 1, 2018
The study investigated motor cortex plasticity following tendon transfer surgery in individuals with tetraplegia, focusing on thumb flexion restoration. fMRI results indicated that regained thumb cont...
KEY FINDING: Cortical activations elicited by elbow flexion did not differ between patients and controls.