Vagus Nerve Stimulation Paired With Rehabilitative Training Enhances Motor Recovery After Bilateral Spinal Cord Injury to Cervical Forelimb Motor Pools.

ABSTRACT: Closed-loop vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) paired with rehabilitative training has emerged as a strategy to enhance recovery after neurological injury. Previous studies demonstrate that brief bursts of closed-loop VNS paired with rehabilitative training substantially improve recovery of forelimb motor function in models of unilateral and bilateral contusive spinal cord injury (SCI) at spinal level C5/6. While these findings provide initial evidence of the utility of VNS for SCI, the injury model used in these studies spares the majority of alpha motor neurons originating in C7-T1 that innervate distal forelimb muscles. Because the clinical manifestation of SCI in many patients involves damage at these levels, it is important to define whether damage to the distal forelimb motor neuron pools

SUBMITTER: Darrow MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7080607 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature