AJNR Am J Neuroradiol, 2023 · DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3174/ajnr.A7847 · Published: May 1, 2023
This study investigates the brain activity of children with complete spinal cord injuries while they imagine moving. Researchers used fMRI to compare the brain activity of these children to that of healthy children when both groups were imagining movement. The study found that certain brain areas related to movement and thinking were still active in the children with spinal cord injuries during motor imagery. Furthermore, some sensorimotor areas showed higher activation levels in the injured children compared to the healthy children. These findings suggest that motor imagery could be a useful rehabilitation technique for children with complete spinal cord injuries, as it can activate preserved neural pathways and potentially promote brain reorganization.
Motor imagery training may be a viable rehabilitation strategy for pediatric patients with complete spinal cord injury due to the functional preservation and reorganization observed in the motor imagery network.
The study provides insights into the neural mechanisms underlying motor imagery in pediatric complete spinal cord injury, highlighting the potential for functional reorganization in sensorimotor-related regions.
The findings suggest the need for further longitudinal studies to confirm the long-term effects of motor imagery training on pediatric patients with complete spinal cord injury.