What Did We Learn from the Animal Studies of Body Weight-Supported Treadmill Training and Where Do We Go from Here?

ABSTRACT: Body weight-supported treadmill training (BWSTT) developed from animal studies of spinal cord injury (SCI). Evidence that spinal cats (i.e., cats that have a complete surgical transection of the cord) could regain the ability to step on a moving treadmill indicated a vast potential for spinal circuits to generate walking without the brain. BWSTT represented a means to unlock that potential. As the technique was adapted as a rehabilitation intervention for humans with SCI, shortcomings in the translation to walking in the real world were exposed. Evidence that BWSTT has not been as successful for humans with SCI leads us to revisit key animal studies. In this short review, we describe the task-specific nature of BWSTT and discuss how this specificity may pose limits on the recovery of overg

SUBMITTER: de Leon RD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5421634 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature