Changes in Motoneurone and Motor Axon Properties Distal to the Lesion in Stroke

中风后，适应性变化发生在中风水平以下的脊髓运动神经元，但这些都是知之甚少。除了脊髓反射的夸大，远端的变化在很大程度上被临床医生忽视。即使是脊髓反射放大的机制仍然存在争议，部分原因是没有一个单一的过程可以解释它。使用最初开发用于研究人类外周神经生物物理特性的新实验技术，该项目将量化运动神经元及其外周延伸，运动轴突，并将这些结果与相同患者的非瘫痪侧和健康匹配对照受试者的结果进行比较。将在纵向研究中记录随时间发生的变化。这些发现将与患者的临床状态相关，从而深入了解运动神经元特性的变化在多大程度上驱动了痉挛等临床表现。此外，对照研究将提供进一步了解是否干扰传输在某些特定的脊髓反射途径，有助于显着痉挛。该项目对于理解中枢神经系统损伤后神经结构的适应性变化（可塑性）的性质非常重要，并将揭示中风中发生的远程变化。这些研究不仅与理解目前的赤字有关，而且与理解有关，也许还与使用康复程序改变结果有关。

Following a stroke, adaptive changes occur in spinal cord motoneurones below the level of the stroke, but these are poorly understood. Apart from the exaggeration of spinal reflexes, distal changes have largely been neglected by clinicians. Even the mechanisms responsible for the exaggeration of spinal reflexes are still debated, in part because no single process can account for it. Using novel experimental techniques originally developed to study biophysical properties of human peripheral nerves, this project will quantify the changes in excitability that occur in motoneurones and their peripheral extension, the motor axon, and compare these with the findings on the non-paralysed side of the same patients and with healthy matched control subjects. The changes that occur over time will be documented in longitudinal studies. The findings will be correlated with the patient's clinical status, providing insight into the extent to which changes in motoneurone properties drive clinical manifestations such as spasticity. In addition, control studies will provide further insight into whether disturbed transmission in some specific spinal reflex pathways contributes significantly to spasticity. The project is important for understanding the nature of adaptive changes (plasticity) in neural structures following lesions in the central nervous system and will shed light on the remote changes that occur in stroke. The studies are relevant not only for understanding current deficits but also for understanding and perhaps altering outcomes using rehabilitation procedures.