Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 24, 2025
08:41
Unilateral Pyramidotomy of the Corticospinal Tract in Rats for Assessment of Neuroplasticity-inducing Therapies
Published on: December 15, 2014
16.3K
Rapid motor cortical reorganization following subacute spinal cord dysfunction
M T Dias Leao1, L Wiesinger1, U Ziemann2
1Department of Neurosurgery, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
Brain Stimulation
|April 15, 2020
Summary
Transient spinal cord injury caused a temporary posterior shift in motor cortex representation. Full recovery of motor function and cortical mapping was observed within weeks, demonstrating rapid brain plasticity.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Motor Control
- Neuroplasticity
Background:
- Spinal cord injury (SCI) is known to cause motor cortex reorganization.
- Previous studies relied on comparing patient data with healthy controls.
- Pre-traumatic data for individual patients is typically unavailable.
Observation:
- A unique case of transient spinal cord injury with pre-injury navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS) mapping is presented.
- The patient experienced left-sided hemiparesis for four weeks.
- nTMS mapping was conducted pre-injury, acutely, sub-acutely, and chronically.
Findings:
- nTMS revealed a posterior shift of the abductor pollicis brevis (APB) representation towards the somatosensory cortex post-injury.
- Motor function and nTMS mapping showed significant improvement within 10 days.
- Complete recovery of motor function and cortical representation was observed after two years.
Implications:
- This case provides direct evidence of rapid cortical reorganization following transient SCI.
- It highlights the dynamic nature of motor cortex representation.
- The findings support the concept of adaptive neuroplasticity after neurological injury.
