[Spinal circuit motor plasticity mechanisms in long-term sports activity adaptation]

Man interacts with the environment through motor activities getting considerable sensor information from numerous internal and external sources. There is significant evidence of I-a afferents sensor information being critical in initiating of functional and morphological transformations in the periods of both development and maturation of cortex and spinal cord. Ia fibers ability to transmit sensor information, generated by muscle and motor activities, causes plastic changes in the central nervous system, enabling man to acquire new skills and movements and develop them. Therefore, understanding of activity-dependent neural plasticity mechanisms is of great importance in developing methods to perfect motor function, for example, in doing sports. This article presents the results of investigation of activity-dependent changes in spinal cord circuits in athletes. There are new data of cervical and lumbosacral motor spinal system plasticity as a result of various longterm sports activities. It is shown, in particular, that, in comparison with non-athletes, in the spinal cord of ski-racers and basketball-players the representation area of upper and lower extremities muscles alpha-motorneurons with high reflex excitability is extended. Moreover,.the direction of the extension was specified by the upper segments activity. Besides, the volume of some revealed signs of cervical and lumbosacral spinal cord plasticity in the ski-racers, involved into moderate cyclic activity, was higher than that in the basketball-players, whose movements are more various.