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Abstract #0305

Spinal cord injury and the patterns of neuronal plasticityduring motor-rehabilitation training

Tim Max Emmenegger1, Gergely David1, Tim Killeen1, and Patrick Freund1,2,3
1Spinal Cord Injury Center Balgrist University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland, 2Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom, 3Department of Neurophysics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany

Synopsis

Keywords: Other Neurodegeneration, Brain, Myelin plasticity; Multiparametric mapping; Magnetisation transfer; Motor learning; Quantitative MRI; Corticospinal tract; Hippocampus

Motivation: Rehabilitation following spinal cord injury is currently the only means to improve motor function. How macro-and microstructural changes in the CNS promote such recovery is understudied.

Goal(s): Investigate training-induced plasticity during motor skill training and explore associations between neuroplasticity and performance.

Approach: We compared healthy and SCI trainees and healthy non-trainees using quantitative and diffusion MRI, and associated changes in MRI parameters with performance improvement.

Results: SCI patients showed training-induced changes in cortical and subcortical areas, which were akin to those in healthy controls and were linked to specific aspects of motor skill learning.

Impact: Motor skill learning in SCI induces neuroplasticity in similar areas as seen in healthy controls. These findings open the possibility to monitor progress in neurorehabilitation.

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Keywords