[CTN] CTN Seminar: Aimee Nelson (McMaster), 3:30 March 6, PAS 2464.

[Bryan Tripp]

Hi everyone,

Next Tuesday we will have a talk by Professor Aimee Nelson from McMaster.
The title and abstract follow.

Bryan


Changes in the organization of the motor cortex that follow incomplete
spinal cord injury
Movement training for improving upper limb control is an essential
component of rehabilitation for individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI).
Understanding the cortical representation of arm muscles in SCI is
fundamental to designing more effective movement training regimes.  In
uninjured individuals, the primary motor cortex (M1) contains overlapping
muscle representations, an organization that reflects muscle synergies.
This organizational feature has yet to be studied in SCI yet is considered
a key element that defines the coordinated action of multiple muscles
during human movement. Using Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), we
investigated the bilateral representation and overlapping distribution of
muscles of the upper limb in chronic cervical SCI and aged-matched controls
(n=9, each group). Muscles studied included the abductor pollicus brevis
(APB), flexor carpi radialis (FCR) and biceps brachii (BB) and the cortical
territory (cm2), overlapping territory (cm2) of the target muscles, and
center of gravity were computed. Results indicate a reduction in the
cortical territory dedicated to all three muscles in SCI (i.e. reduced
complete overlap) compared to uninjured controls.  Further, SCI had greater
cortical territory dedicated to a single or dual muscle representation.
These data indicate that overlapping organization is preserved in the motor
cortex of SCI, however, the overlapping representation does not extend to
all three muscles. The implication from these data is that movement
training emphasizing synergies that incorporate all three muscles (APB,
FCR, BB) may promote greater representational overlap (similar to uninjured
controls) and provide functional gains in motor control.
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