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The spinal cord is a bundle of nerves and supporting tissue that extends from the brain. It has an essential role in conducting motor and sensory information from and to the brain, as well as in regulating certain reflexes.
The basal ganglia control the execution of motor actions. However, how they engage spinal motor networks is unclear. Here the authors show that the basal ganglia–spinal cord pathway controls locomotor asymmetries in adult mice.
Electrical signals with characteristic parameters for reconstructing neural circuits remain incompletely understood, limiting the therapeutic potential of electrical neuromodulation techniques. Here, the authors demonstrate that dual electrical stimulation at 10–20 Hz rebuilds the spinal sensorimotor neural circuit after spinal cord injury, indicating the characteristic signals of circuit remodeling.
A model of macaque cervical motoneurons shows that the somatotopic organization of motoneuron pools reflects the synergistic and antagonistic actions of the muscles they innervate; this may help simplify sensorimotor control.
The role of presynaptic modulation on peripheral sensory input during voluntary movement is unclear. Here, the authors found it flexibly facilitates and suppresses proprioceptive input to the monkey’s spinal cord, relevant to motor behavior.
Epidural spinal cord stimulation improved upper limb function in two participants after stroke, revealing a potentially exciting new tool for stroke recovery.
In zebrafish, pioneer axons of the dorsal root ganglia require the release of synaptic-like vesicles to enter the spinal cord, suggesting that synaptic vesicles have a role in circuit formation ahead of synaptogenesis.
