Department of Humanities Studies, University Federico II, 80133 Naples, Italy.
Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Jun 15;24(12):10173. doi: 10.3390/ijms241210173.
Since the spinal cord has traditionally been considered a bundle of long fibers connecting the brain to all parts of the body, the study of its role has long been limited to peripheral sensory and motor control. However, in recent years, new studies have challenged this view pointing to the spinal cord's involvement not only in the acquisition and maintenance of new motor skills but also in the modulation of motor and cognitive functions dependent on cortical motor regions. Indeed, several reports to date, which have combined neurophysiological techniques with transpinal direct current stimulation (tsDCS), have shown that tsDCS is effective in promoting local and cortical neuroplasticity changes in animals and humans through the activation of ascending corticospinal pathways that modulate the sensorimotor cortical networks. The aim of this paper is first to report the most prominent tsDCS studies on neuroplasticity and its influence at the cortical level. Then, a comprehensive review of tsDCS literature on motor improvement in animals and healthy subjects and on motor and cognitive recovery in post-stroke populations is presented. We believe that these findings might have an important impact in the future making tsDCS a potential suitable adjunctive approach for post-stroke recovery.
由于脊髓传统上被认为是连接大脑和身体所有部位的长纤维束，因此对其功能的研究长期以来一直局限于外周感觉和运动控制。然而，近年来，新的研究挑战了这一观点，指出脊髓不仅参与新运动技能的获得和维持，而且还参与依赖皮质运动区域的运动和认知功能的调节。事实上，迄今为止的几项报告将神经生理学技术与经颅直流电刺激(transpinal direct current stimulation，tsDCS)相结合，表明 tsDCS 通过激活调节感觉运动皮质网络的上行皮质脊髓通路，在动物和人类中有效促进局部和皮质神经可塑性变化。本文的目的首先是报告关于神经可塑性及其对皮质水平影响的最突出的 tsDCS 研究。然后，对关于动物和健康受试者运动改善以及中风后人群运动和认知恢复的 tsDCS 文献进行了全面回顾。我们相信，这些发现可能会对未来产生重要影响，使 tsDCS 成为中风后恢复的一种潜在合适的辅助方法。
