Muir G D, Steeves J D
Dept of Veterinary Physiological Sciences, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada.
Trends Neurosci. 1997 Feb;20(2):72-7. doi: 10.1016/s0166-2236(96)10068-0.
Functional recovery after CNS injury may depend, in part, upon reorganization of undamaged neural pathways. Spinal cord circuits are capable of significant reorganization, in the form of both activity-dependent and injury-induced plasticity. This plasticity is manifest behaviourally in the ability of spinal animals to learn new locomotor tasks. Recent work with spinal-injured humans demonstrates that training can improve functional locomotor abilities. New methodologies to enhance limb movement are designed to exploit further the plastic capabilities of the spinal cord by reinforcing appropriate connections in an activity-dependent manner. In the future, these methods might also prove useful in guiding and strengthening functional synaptogenesis of regenerating axons to maximize their contribution towards restoration of function.
中枢神经系统损伤后的功能恢复可能部分取决于未受损神经通路的重组。脊髓回路能够进行显著的重组，表现为活动依赖性和损伤诱导性可塑性。这种可塑性在行为上表现为脊髓动物学习新运动任务的能力。最近对脊髓损伤患者的研究表明，训练可以改善运动功能。旨在增强肢体运动的新方法旨在通过以活动依赖的方式加强适当的连接，进一步利用脊髓的可塑性能力。未来，这些方法可能也有助于引导和加强再生轴突的功能性突触形成，以最大限度地发挥它们对功能恢复的作用。
