Bruehlmeier M, Dietz V, Leenders K L, Roelcke U, Missimer J, Curt A
PET Program, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland.
Eur J Neurosci. 1998 Dec;10(12):3918-22. doi: 10.1046/j.1460-9568.1998.00454.x.
The primary sensorimotor cortex of the adult brain is capable of significant reorganization of topographic maps after deafferentation and de-efferentation. Here we show that patients with spinal cord injury exhibit extensive changes in the activation of cortical and subcortical brain areas during hand movements, irrespective of normal (paraplegic) or impaired (tetraplegic patients) hand function. Positron emission tomography ([15O]-H2O-PET) revealed not only an expansion of the cortical 'hand area' towards the cortical 'leg area', but also an enhanced bilateral activation of the thalamus and cerebellum. The areas of the brain which were activated were qualitatively the same in both paraplegic and tetraplegic patients, but differed quantitatively as a function of the level of their spinal cord injury. We postulate that the changes in brain activation following spinal cord injury may reflect an adaptation of hand movement to a new body reference scheme secondary to a reduced and altered spino-thalamic and spino-cerebellar input.
成人大脑的主要感觉运动皮层在传入神经切断和传出神经切断后能够对地形图进行显著的重新组织。在这里，我们表明，脊髓损伤患者在手部运动过程中，无论手部功能正常（截瘫患者）还是受损（四肢瘫患者），其皮质和皮质下脑区的激活都会出现广泛变化。正电子发射断层扫描（[15O]-H2O-PET）不仅显示皮质“手部区域”向皮质“腿部区域”扩展，还显示丘脑和小脑的双侧激活增强。截瘫和四肢瘫患者激活的脑区在性质上相同，但在数量上因脊髓损伤水平而异。我们推测，脊髓损伤后大脑激活的变化可能反映了手部运动对继发于脊髓丘脑和脊髓小脑输入减少及改变的新身体参照模式的适应。
