NEUROCHEMISTRY OF INJURY-INDUCED CORTICAL PLASTICITY

描述（改编自申请人摘要）：在过去两年内 几十年来，我们对成人大脑如何变化的了解甚少， 呈指数增长 躯体感觉皮质区的可及性， 身体表面的高度可靠的中心表示提供了 这是一个研究成人神经可塑性的特别丰富的模型。 传入刺激模式的操纵伴随着（现在） 皮肤的地形表示的可预测的改变 面 很可能许多躯体感觉的机制 神经损伤后“学习”新反应的区域在进化上是保守的 在大脑的其他区域也是如此。 这些变化可能是有益的， 在本质上是有害的，并可能表现为能够 巩固记忆，或在病理疾病的进展。 而 损伤诱导的躯体感觉皮层重组已经被 对大脑皮层可塑性的机制进行了广泛研究， 尚未完全阐明。 在本申请中，提出了 在皮层重组过程中发生的神经化学变化 监测，然后与任何可能发生的神经化学变化进行比较， 对剥夺的反应。 这种减法分析允许 确定神经化学变化是因果关系， 是副现象

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): Within the past two decades, our meager understanding of how the adult brain can change has grown exponentially. The accessibility of somotosensory cortical areas and the highly reliable central representation of the body surface have provided a particularly fertile model by which to study adult neural plasticity. Manipulations of afferent stimulation patterns are accompanied by (now) predictable alterations in the topographic representation of the dermal surface. It is likely that many of the mechanisms by which somatosensory areas "learn" new responses after nerve injury are evolutionarily conserved in other brain areas as well. These changes can be beneficial or detrimental in nature and may manifest themselves as the ability to consolidate memory, or in the progression of a pathological disease. While injury induced reorganization in the somatosensory cortex has been extensively studied the mechanisms responsible for cortical plasticity have not been fully elucidated. In the present application, it is proposed that the neurochemical changes that occur during cortical reorganization be monitored and then compared to any neurochemical changes that might occur in response to deprivation alone. Such a subtractive analysis permits the identification of the neurochemical changes that are causal and those that are epiphenomenal.