Second-order spinal cord pathway contributes to cortical responses after long recoveries from dorsal column injury in squirrel monkeys.

ABSTRACT: Months after the occurrence of spinal cord dorsal column lesions (DCLs) at the cervical level, neural responses in the hand representation of somatosensory area 3b hand cortex recover, along with hand use. To examine whether the second-order spinal cord pathway contributes to this functional recovery, we injected cholera toxin subunit B (CTB) into the hand representation in the cuneate nucleus (Cu) to label the spinal cord neurons, and related results to cortical reactivation in four squirrel monkeys (Saimiri boliviensis) at least 7 months after DCL. In two monkeys with complete DCLs, few CTB-labeled neurons were present below the lesion, and few neurons in the affected hand region in area 3b responded to touch on the hand. In two other cases with large but incomplete DCLs, CTB-labe

SUBMITTER: Liao CC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5910841 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature