Updating perspectives on spinal cord function: motor coordination, timing, relational processing, and memory below...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Spinal Cord Physiology
• Learning and Memory

Background:

• Historically, the spinal cord was considered a passive relay for signals, with higher-level cognitive functions attributed solely to the brain.
• This perspective overlooked the spinal cord's potential for complex information processing and behavioral organization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review evidence challenging the traditional view of the spinal cord as purely mechanical.
• To highlight the spinal cord's capacity for abstract processing, learning, and plasticity.
• To explore the implications for understanding brain function and developing treatments for spinal cord injury (SCI).

Main Methods:

• Review of scientific literature over the past 50 years.
• Analysis of studies on spinal cord mechanisms, including NMDA receptor-mediated plasticity and GABA's inhibitory role.
• Examination of research on spinal cord injury (SCI) effects on plasticity.

Main Results:

• The spinal cord can organize coordinated behaviors like stepping and modulate pain signal processing.
• Spinal cord mechanisms can abstract stimulus-stimulus (Pavlovian) and response-outcome (instrumental) relations, and infer stimulus regularity.
• Spinal cord injury (SCI) can enhance plasticity by reducing GABA inhibition, potentially altering signal content relayed to the brain.

Conclusions:

• The spinal cord possesses sophisticated processing capabilities, including learning, memory, and cognitive-like functions, analogous to brain processes.
• Studying the spinal cord offers a valuable model system for understanding broader principles of neural function.
• This research opens new therapeutic avenues for individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI).